Largely thanks to their 3-0 domination of the State of Origin series, Queensland players dominated in the Australian forward pack with Manly's Phil Daley the only NSW player in the starting six. Both Blues skipper Wayne Pearce and Noel Cleal were shock omissions while Wally Fullerton-Smith (second row) and Greg Conescu (hooker) were recalled for their first tests since 1984 and 1985 respectively. The absence through injury of several of Great Britain's Test stars meant that several members of their team were playing out of position. Following heavy losses to Northern Division and Manly-Warringah in their two games immediately prior to the first test, one unnamed ARL official allegedly remarked that trying to promote a test series with the Great Britain side (who had not won a test against Australia since the second test of the 1978 Kangaroo Tour) was like trying to flog a dead horse. Indeed, this was reflected when only 24,480 attended the first test at the Sydney Football Stadium, with the dead rubber third test at the venue only attracting 15,944 fans, the lowest ever test attendance between the two teams in Sydney. Following a high tackle on British hooker Kevin Beardmore by Australian front rower Phil Daley, Great Britain put the first points on the board with Paul Loughlin's penalty kick from 40 metres out. The first try also went to the visitors with Ellery Hanley beating several defenders to score in the corner. Great Britain looked the better team in the first half and were leading 6–0 at the break. After six minutes of the second-half Sam Backo ran on to a Peter Sterling pass to score Australia's first try, although there was doubt around the ball's grounding. Peter Jackson scored two tries over 11 minutes to give Australia victory. In between these two tries Wally Lewis kicked a field goal. John MacDonald of "The Sydney Morning Herald" reported that the tourists were not only competitive, but a little unlucky, and that the 17–6 score did not reflect how close they came to winning. He also leveled heavy criticism at the refereeing performance of Francois Desplas, who could not speak English. As man-of-the-match, British forward Kevin Ward received $1,000. Great Britain's second-row forward Andy Platt received an injury to his left arm that was expected to see him sidelined for the next two weeks. Combined Brisbane: Steve Hegarty, Kelly Egan, Brett McCarthy, Cherry, Gordon Barwick, Peter Coyne, Daunt, McIntyre, Holmes, Ponting, Glen Haggath, Ian Stains, Darren Smith.