As of 2017, this remains the last full mid-season Kangaroo tour of New Zealand in which the Australians played against club and regional teams.
Leadership
Don Furner had stepped down after three successful years as coach and was replaced by 1978 Kangaroo tour captain and Manly-Warringah's 1987 premiership winning coach Bob Fulton. Wally Lewis was the captain of the side as he had been since 1984 while Manly-Warringah's Paul Vautin was the team vice-captain. Vautin captained the team in the three non-test games of the tour.
The 26-24 loss to Auckland was the Kangaroos first loss to a club or provincial team since losing 12-11 to NZ side South Island during the 1980 NZ tour.[10] As of 2021 it remains the last time an Australian side has lost a non-test match. This was also the last time the Australians would play a match at Carlaw Park.
During the second half of the game, Australian captain Wally Lewis pulled off a massive (but fair) hit on Kiwi fullback Darrell Williams. Lewis later told that he thought he was lining up Brendon Tuuta who had produced a fair bit of foul play through the series, only to look down at the tackled player and find it was Williams and not Tuuta.[20]