Andrew Fifita loses the ball before regathering it to score the disallowed try.

Why didn't they go upstairs?

That was the question ringing around a bemused Tongan dressing room following their controversial World Cup semifinal defeat to England at Mt Smart.

Trailing 20-0 with seven minutes to go and seemingly all hope lost, Tonga sprung to life with three late tries to cut England's lead to 20-18.

With seconds to go, Tongan forward Andrew Fifita broke through the left edge of England's defence.

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GETTY IMAGES Konrad Hurrell lies devastated on the turf after the final whistle.

The ball then appeared to have been stripped from his grasp by an English tackler, but he picked it up and dived for the line, where he looked to have scored the winning try.

Referee Matt Cecchin had a different view, though.

Without going to the video referee, he deemed that Fifita had lost it forward, and that there had been no strip, which meant he wasn't able to pick it up and score, sending a relieved England side to the final.

The Tongan players were left dumbfounded and with so much riding on the decision, coach Kristian Woolf could not believe Cecchin did not use the technology available like he had done several times earlier.

"I don't know if it's a try or not because I haven't seen it but I would've thought in those circumstances there's no way in the world you don't have a look it at," Woolf said.

"The game's on the line, it's the last play of the game. You look at other tries 10, 12 times and you don't have a look at that. I really don't understand that."

Had Fifita scored, Tonga, a tier-two nation, would have completed their second win over a tier-one nation in the space of two weeks, after they beat the Kiwis a fortnight ago.

Instead, as things unfolded, England survived and will now play the Kangaroos in next Saturday's final in Brisbane.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, England coach Wayne Bennett was adamant the right decision was made.

Even if they had gone to the video referee, he had no doubt England winger Jermaine McGillvary had the ball stripped from his grasp just moments earlier in a hectic final play.

"Why didn't he give us a penalty when the ball got stripped off McGillvary, exactly the same thing happened," Bennett said.

However, that was not the only decision that went against the Tongans.

Midway through the first-half, the video referee overturned a no-try ruling on the field to England's Gareth Widdop, despite replays appearing to show that he was held up.

"I thought there was enough doubt given the fact it hadn't been given a try by the referee that it could have went our way," Woolf said. "It was just one of those nights when for one reason or another every 50-50 (decision) seemed to go the over way."

While Tonga were behind on the scoreboard for the entire 80 minutes, Woolf felt his side had outplayed England for large parts of the match.

But he was left to a rue a lack of execution on attack, particularly early in the second half when Daniel Tupuo bombed a certain try.

"We were a little bit ill-disciplined when we needed to be better, that gave England field position at times," he said.

"England did a terrific job with their fifth play, they really suffocated us with the way they kicked.

"We had three or four opportunities well before that last 10 or 15 minutes and for whatever reason tonight opportunities we've taken in past games we just weren't able to take.

"It was one of those games when not a lot went our way but I could not be any prouder with the way they just hung in and kept trying. That's why the scoreline ended up as close as it was because these blokes just didn't want to give up."

Despite the nail-biting finish, Bennett said he wasn't nervous. But he conceded England would have to be a lot better to have a chance of beating Australia next week.

Making life more difficult for the Lions, they are likely to be without hooker Josh Hodgson, who limped off with a knee injury in the first half. Veteran lock Sean O'Loughlin is also in doubt with a suspected shoulder injury.

"I just wanted the fulltime hooter to go, nothing else, but the clock was on our side," he said.

"It was a quality game of football. It had everything, the atmosphere was great, sell-out crowd and both teams turned up and threw everything at each other.

"We had a tough job here. They're a quality football team with some really quality players, three or four have played for Australia and New Zealand so we had our hands full. But we were up for it and got the job done."

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