Aussie referee gets Control Committee's full backing

MATTHEW JAMES, criticised for his handling of last week's first International Rules Test, will again be the home official today in Melbourne, alongside Michael Collins from Cork.

However, he received a welcome boost yesterday from a joint AFL/GAA 'Control Committee' which concluded from an analysis of the game that the performance of James and Meath's Dave Coldrick had been 'extremely satisfactory.'

Irish manager Pete McGrath said that while he had a difficulty with a number of decisions made by James, he was prepared to accept that they were genuine mistakes.