Manly-Warringah's Max Krilich was making his second Kangaroo tour and was named captain and carried out his duties coolly and with great application.

Lewis later admitted that early on in the tour his poor attitude did not sit well with Stanton and that it had led to his missing first test selection.

Max Krilich later would tell that it was his belief that Vautin's comment during the year that representing Queensland was a bigger honour than playing for Australia had ultimately cost him a place on the tour.

1982 Brisbane premiers Wynnum-Manly had two players selected (Gene Miles and Rod Morris), while the team they defeated in the BRL Grand Final Souths Magpies were represented by Mal Meninga, a goal kicking Queensland centre who was as big as a second rower (107 kg (16 st 12 lb)) and could run with the pace of a winger.

One notable absentee was Western Suburbs Five-eighth Terry Lamb who had represented NSW in the 1981 State of Origin game.

Before flying to England, half the squad, led by Kangaroos vice-captain Wally Lewis, went to Perth to play Western Australia, while the other half, along with coach Stanton, travelled to Papua New Guinea for Australia's first ever Test match against the Papua New Guinea Kumuls, won 38–2 by the Kangaroos.

Winger John Ribot crossed for four tries (though he would be overlooked for the first two Ashes Tests in favour of Eric Grothe), while fullback Greg Brentnall scored twice.

Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny, Mark Murray and Ray Brown made their test debuts in the match.

Those missing from the 2nd test win over New Zealand earlier in the year at the Sydney Cricket Ground were Michael Cronin who did not tour, and Wally Lewis, Steve Mortimer, Les Boyd and Rod Morris who played in Perth on the same day.

Instead, Stanton chose to go with the halves from the test against Papua New Guinea, Parramatta's Grand Final winning duo Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny.

The match was played in heavy rain in front of 5,617 fans and Australia, captained by Wally Lewis, ran in nine tries to one in a 37–7 rout.

Man of the Match Mal Meninga lit up Craven Park on his first taste of football on English soil, scoring a try and kicking 6 goals in the win.

Only two players from the team, second row forward Rod Reddy and reserve winger Kerry Boustead, were considered certainties for selection in the upcoming 1st Ashes test.

While Australia's side for the opening Test was built around the new breed of young players such as Eric Grothe, Wayne Pearce, Mal Meninga, Brett Kenny and Peter Sterling mixing with veterans Craig Young, Les Boyd, Ray Price, Rod Reddy, Kerry Boustead, Steve Rogers and captain Max Krilich, Great Britain chose five players aged over 30.

In the second half the Kangaroos unleashed their skills and fitness, and blazed six tries to leave the British game, and most of the 26,771 strong crowd packed into Hull's Boothferry Park stunned.

Centre Mal Meninga, playing his 4th test and the first of what would eventually be a record 17 Ashes tests against Great Britain, scored the opening try of the game after good lead up work by Peter Sterling and Pearce, then easily palming off Les Dyl and outpacing fullback George Fairbairn to score in the corner.

In commentary for the BBC, former Great Britain and England dual-rugby international forward Ray French stated after the final siren "Well, I've got to eat a little humble pie.

I thought Great Britain could do something, but with only those two penalty goals from Lee Crooks its back to the drawing board for the Great Britain selectors I'm afraid", while his commentary partner, Wigan coach, former Lions halfback and Kangaroos tormentor Alex Murphy said during the first half "We need something to combat this lot."

This was the first time that future Australian test halves pair Wally Lewis and Peter Sterling played alongside each other as Australia's five-eighth and halfback.

Prior to the second test, Phil Larder, the Coaching Director of the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) spent a week in camp with Frank Stanton and the Kangaroos to observe their training and tactics.

Half-way through the second half Lewis showed the 23,126 crowd at Central Park what the British game was missing when he sent a bullet like 20 metre pass to Meninga to score in the corner.

Kangaroos coach Frank Stanton predicted that the third Test would be the best contested of the three, and he was proved correct until the final ten minutes of play.

The play looked like breaking down when he didn't pass to an un-marked Kerry Boustead on his outside and was tackled from behind by a desperate David Stephenson.

Wayne Pearce then broke the British line before passing to Rod Reddy who gave the ball to Ribot flying on his outside.

Starting with the 1986 Kangaroo tour, all test matches Australia has played in Leeds have been played at the Elland Road stadium, home of the Leeds United soccer club, due to its greater spectator capacity (Elland Road currently holds 37,890 while Headingley has a capacity of 21,062).

The tourists found the French Tests more of a challenge than the British, but in the end the Kangaroos prevailed and finished their tour unbeaten.

During the first half, Wally Lewis dislocated his shoulder while attempting to tackle a French player which ended his tour, though as there were only 2 weeks remaining he remained with the squad until they returned to Australia (the injury was a recurrence of a similar injury he had suffered while touring Japan, Great Britain and France with the Australian Schoolboys rugby union team in 1977).

), Brett Kenny and Steve Ella (Wigan), Eric Grothe (Leeds), Wally Lewis (Wakefield Trinity) and Mal Meninga (St Helens) would have short, but successful stints in England.