Smith: Give us the credit we deserve

Saturday night's 28-22 victory followed last weekend's 44-0 triumph at Hull and a 20-14 win in the first Test at Huddersfield, and was a fitting way for the Lions to sign off in their final clash on home soil as Great Britain.

However, the Kiwis have not been slow to point to the number of players they had to leave at home due to injury and unavailability throughout the tour - and Smith believes some of the gloss has been unfairly taken away from the achievements of his team, saying: "We've used 23 players, and there's a few others that weren't available through injury, which we haven't made much of a fuss about, by the way."

He added: "Look, it was a Test series. I just don't get it otherwise, when you start talking about what wasn't here or what wasn't available. Otherwise you'd just list your best 17 down on paper and you wouldn't play.

"Why don't you just cross them off and say 'mine's better than yours' and that's it - end of series?

"Test football is about getting your players out on the field, and whether they want to play or whether they are injured is all hypothetical. More of my boys wanted to play. It's a Test - that's what it's all about. We've got injuries too.

"You can write about it all you want and complain about it all you want, but there's only one way to solve a Test series and that's play each other. Go for it. If there's another way, let me know. Sorry but I just think they have detracted a little bit from our boys.

"There's been a lot of talk about what's not been there, and I don't know if it's been even enough to say 'hey, the opposition have got better a little bit'. I don't know if credit's been given over - but maybe we don't need that credit anyway. We'll just get on with it."

The Kiwis had led 12-0 after just 10 minutes thanks to tries from debutante Chase Stanley and Paul Whatuira, before James Graham, Keith Senior and David Hodgson, another man on debut, scored tries of their own to see GB go in 14-12 ahead at the break.

Further tries from man-of-the-series Rob Burrow and Danny McGuire saw the Lions, inspired by man-of-the-match Sean O'Loughlin on his home ground, open up an unassailable advantage, before Stanley's second try and a last-gasp score from Taniela Tuiaki saw the Kiwis regain some pride.