In the event Great Britain confounded most expectations by running out worthy winners[citation needed] and levelling their tally of World Cup wins at 3–3 with the Australians.

Great Britain played Australia and in the end, with scores level and unchanged after extra time, claimed the cup on league placing.

The game will always be remembered by the British for their captain Clive Sullivan's wonderful long distance try[2][3] and by the Australians for perhaps "the greatest try never scored",[4] later shown on TV to be legitimately scored by Australian fullback Graeme Langlands but disallowed by French referee Georges Jameau.

[6] Had Aussie winger Ray Branighan succeeded with a 79th-minute penalty or Bob Fulton landed one of three drop goal attempts in the last five minutes, the cup could easily have gone to Australia.

An additional twenty minutes extra time was played, but no further score resulted, and Great Britain were awarded the cup by virtue of a better position in the table.