NO matter what happened in Port Moresby this morning, this tour was always going to go down as a low point in the history of Great Britain rugby league.

However, defeat to Papua New Guinea meant this disastrous four weeks sunk to a new embarrassing low.

The odds would have been stacked against the Kumuls – while they had smatterings of NRL and Super League talent in their side, many of their players ply their trades in lower-tier competitions on both sides of the world.

The cream of northern hemisphere rugby league should have been winning this game, but they were beaten by sheer enthusiasm combined with the kind of creative kicking the Lions have lacked all tour.

This was a historic victory for the rugby league-mad island nation and one they fully deserved.

For the Warrington Wolves players involved, only Gareth Widdop and Chris Hill can truly say they have had sufficient platform to showcase their abilities.

Whether or not they took that chance is doubtful at best.

The Wire will have been hoping this tour will have given Austin and Widdop the chance to plant the seeds of a partnership ahead of playing together at club level in 2020.

However, linking up as full-back and winger as they ended up doing in Port Moresby would not have been what they had in mind.

The Austin on the wing debate has been done to death and while he will leave the tour as a tryscorer, his display was the mix of promising carries and basic errors one would expect from a player playing so far out of position.

Jack Hughes, too, was only ever played in a more unfamiliar centre role as a consequence of a needlessly risky squad selection by Wayne Bennett.

Joe Philbin showed glimpses of promise in a tour punctuated by injury, while Daryl Clark will probably be one of the only Lions players to emerge with any sort of credit.

PNG were having joy from dummy-half – typified by Edwin Ipape’s superb individual effort. If only Bennett could call on a player with the ability to make that kind of incision from behind the ruck…

It was not just Warrington players who could feel hard done to, though.

Spare a thought for Jake Trueman, brought on tour only to not see a second of action, and Ash Handley – flown out for a game he did not even play in.

As a whole, though, this was a tired display devoid of any confidence or invention.

Yes, the humid conditions will not have helped, neither would losing skipper James Graham in the very first minute, but there can be no excuses.

This shambolic tour has ended on a new low point and Bennett must surely be odds-against to have his contract with the RFL renewed now.