Worth remembering two of the forwards from that series who died tragically young. Mike Gregory, who came on as a sub in this game, died from motor neurone disease aged 41 and Roy Powell who started the first test and was a sub in the second died of a heart attack aged only 33. He was still a player / assistant coach at Rochdale.
As of February 2022, all of the 1990 Kangaroo touring squad are still alive thankfully. Only coach Bob Fulton (2021) and trainer/runner Brian "Sheriff" Hollis (2002) have since passed away. All other staff (to my knowledge) including Shaun McRae (assistant coach/trainer), Dr. Nathan Gibbs, Les Stokes (Manager), Johnny Lewis (trainer), Frank Ponissi (physio/stats/bus driver) and Keith Barnes (Manager), are still alive. RIP to Mike Gregory and Roy Powell.
That's just a classic Australian RL shirt isn't it? Simple and not decorated like an advertising billboard, just one sponsor. Same as the GB shirt. Bring back collars!
This series was one of the best ever - all three Tests were belters. The amount of points Mal Meninga scored for Australia in his career is amazing, and he's probably the best centre overall to have ever played for Australia. But his goalkicking....absolutely atrocious. He's the worst goalkicker I've ever seen for any international team of any country. I wonder what his points tally would have been if he'd had the kicking skills of Jonathan Thurston, 🙂
Daryl Powell and Carl Gibson at centre, surely we had better. Loughlin? A young Newlove? Lydon? Darren Wright? Andy Courier? And Kelin Skerratt, Karl Fairbank and Brendan Hill in the pack?
Graeme Hughes was the most anti Australian Australian commentator I ever heard. Benny Elias and Steve Roach were capable of the biggest bonehead plays imaginable.
Australia's defence was just about perfect, but poor old Andy Gregory was playing just about a lone hand in this match. When Garry Schofield went for his intercept, Mal Reilly was coming down to the Lions bench at the time. His assistant Phil Larder in the stand could only watch in horror. Schofield had been told before the game by both Reilly, Larder and his Leeds coach David Ward, and it was apparently re-told to him at half time, to not do his usual thing of racing out of the line for an intercept because unlike British club sides, if it didn't come off the Aussie's had the players to exploit it ... which is exactly what happened. Cliff Lyons drifted across and sent Mal Meninga back inside right where Schofield would have been had he stayed in the line. The Kangaroos defence was near perfect, but that one moment put the game beyond Great Britain's reach in the conditions. And I don't think Schofield would have scored had he got the ball. Dale Shearer was right with him and no way would Schofield have out-run Rowdy.
@M rugby league is the greatest sport on Earth with over 4 Billion fans and massively popular in over 240 countries including dependencies. soccer/football is only popular in 4 countries. Its a minority sport in the UK, France etc. rugby league will always be the number 1 sport in Australia
If Meninga had of kicked straight, it would have been embarrassing for gb! 14-0 doesn’t tell the story how the Roos overcame all the dirty play, mysterious refereeing decisions and uncharacteristic ball handling mistakes! No wonder Australia stayed dominant for the next three generations of international league.
It wasnt played in a magnificent spirit at all. In nearly all the tackles they made the British came in with punches, flops, knees in the back - not as an occasional thing but with regulatory , they were allowed to forward pass and run shepherd with impunity...no this wasnt played in a good spirited manner at all.
YES! I'd forgotten just how bad the ref was....sad thing is most French ref's all the same. Small wonder the game's almost dead there. Imagine watching that week in week out.
There is NOTHING great about this team. (Just watch the video). "LITTLE BRITAIN". Well they would have scored SOMETHING!!!!!! "GIRLS BRITAIN", Because they would have scored SOMETHING!!!. GIRLS Britain, because they "HAVE NO BALLS AT ALL", JUST WATCH THE VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!