COMMENT

PLAYERS at a dinner with the Team of the Century on Wednesday night were stunned to learn that Australia did not win an Ashes series in England for 50 years and vowed to continue the Kangaroos' recent domination into the next century of Tests.

The dinner, organised by Kangaroos coach Ricky Stuart, gave the players involved in tonight's Centenary Test a greater understanding of what the SCG clash with the Kiwis means, and they were clearly humbled to be in the same room as the greats.

After enjoying a seafood buffet at Doyles restaurant, the Australian players were presented with their jerseys for tonight's match by a member of the Team of the Century.

Wally Lewis handed out the fullback and five-eighth jerseys; Bob Fulton did the wingers; Andrew Johns gave Johnathan Thurston his; John Raper did the same for Michael Crocker; Norm Provan and Ron Coote were responsible for the second-rowers; Noel Kelly handled the props and hooker Cam Smith; Mal Meninga gave Justin Hodges his jersey and Mark Gasnier received his from his uncle, Reg Gasnier.

The 60 guests were shown a video of Test highlights from the past 60 years and listened as Coote told how he drew inspiration every time he pulled on the jersey from watching Australia end their half-century Ashes series drought with a crushing 50-12 defeat of Great Britain in 1963 - a match known ever since as "the Swinton Massacre".

"Fifty years is a long time, and I'll always remember that game," Coote said. "I watched it on TV in Australia. Years later, when I was lucky enough to pull on the Australian jersey, that was one of the things that inspired me."

A lot has changed since then, with the only hiccups to Australia's international domination since 1970 being a controversial 2-0 series defeat by France in 1978, the Tri-Nations final loss to New Zealand in 2005 and losses to New Zealand in one-off Tests in 1971 and 1987. The 1972 World Cup final in Lyon ended in a 10-all draw between Australia and Great Britain after 20 minutes of extra time.

But recent events, such as the naming of the Team of the Century, have given the Kangaroos an insight into the history of the game over the past 100 years, and Smith, who stands in as captain, said in his speech that the players were well aware of their responsibilities.

"This team is aware of what has happened in the past 100 years and the great history of rugby league in Australia," he said. "It's quite humbling for us to be in a room with all of these greats. It just really shows how much pride they had in the Kangaroos jersey … It's our responsibility now to take the game to the next century, and that starts on Friday with the Centenary Test.

"There aren't too many people now who aren't aware of how significant this game is and the similarities it has to the first match: we're wearing the same jersey the original guys played in, we're playing right next door to where they played and it's 100 years to the day of the first match, so it's a special honour for all of the guys to be playing in this match."