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For any copyright, please send me a message. It was a familiar and quite painful moment and yet there was still something quite irritatingly brilliant about it. With the last play of Great Britain’s final 2006 Tri Nations game, winger Gareth Raynor tried a desperate chip and chase deep in Australian territory only for a large pair of hands to snatch the ball. Nathan Hindmarsh shovelled it to Cameron Smith to (inevitably) Darren Lockyer to Karmichael Hunt whose crossfield kick was gathered by winger Brent Tate to score in the corner. High up in the stand with friends on that humid night in Brisbane I remember almost laughing at the freakish killer play. Almost. As Great Britain supporters we were used to these sickening late stings. And yet there were reasons to be proud. The game was dead when Tate went over to make it 33-10. But that night the chasers didn’t give up. Gareth Ellis, Gareth Hock, Paul Wellens and Danny McGuire all desperately hared back in forlorn pursuit. Lads born in Leeds, Wigan, St Helens - our lads - never gave up. Fast forward 13 years and that Great Britain defeat and the feelgood vibe of that trip seems a distant memory. Watching from low down on a British sofa for the last three weeks has been painful at best. When you put aside a fan’s passion for the team, it’s actually no great shock they’ve lost three games on the bounce given the players unavailable, the inevitable injuries and the strength of the opposition. Tonga beat Australia after seeing off GB and any Kiwi team with a spine of three of their nation’s most dynamic and captivating players ever in Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Shaun Johnson and Benji Marshall is a match for anyone at any time. But it’s the manner in which this tour has been thought out, the players selected to fill those gaps and, most importantly, the words of the coach which have done the damage and betrayed the brand. It started with the World Nines, a glorious couple of days of action only marred by the blinkered selection choices of England coach Wayne Bennett. His team sheet looked archaic, like an England T20 cricket team opening the batting with Geoff Boycott and Chris Tavare. In their final game, a predictable defeat to the Kiwis, England had four props in their 13. Compare that with Australia who started with one front row in their winning 13. Bennett simply picked players who would switch shirts to GB when they moved across the Tasman to New Zealand. He may have been financially hamstrung by his RFL paymasters and limited in choice with who he could take out to Sydney. But it’s more likely he wanted time with the bulk of the players who would form his Great Britain side. Imagine picking a side with speed, picking the likes of
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