Scheduling and refereeing came under fire after New Zealand moved to the top of rugby league's Tri-Nations tournament on Saturday night with a comfortable win over Great Britain.

The Kiwis made unnecessarily hard work of their 42-26 victory in front of 15,568 fans at Loftus Road, leading 18-2 after 24 minutes but allowing Britain to come within four points following halftime.

The result means the British will almost certainly have to beat champions Australia twice to make the November 26 final. An all antipodean decider would be a nightmare for promoters.

Great Britain prop Stuart Fielden claimed forcing the home team to go into the tournament 'cold' against opposition with two Tests' practise was unfair, while coach Brian Noble said his team was disadvantaged by the 'dominant tackle' rule in vogue Down Under and enforced by Kiwi ref Glen Black.

"Each year, we keep getting asked to start behind," Bradford's Fielden said.

"It's like getting asked to start behind Michael Johnson by three metres, isn't it?

"The shout has got to go out: we need to be on an even keel to compete in this first game.

"It's not sour grapes, it's not excuses. We need to learn, rather than just think 'let's get some money out of this'. We need to be smart and try and plan better."

Noble said he would be contacting tournament officials this week about the amount of holding down permitted by Black, who refereed his own country because Australia refuse to play under him.

"We played all season over here with far quicker ruck speed than that," he told AAP.

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