A cash-filled briefcase, a missing shield and the beating of Australia

England v Australia: Women's Test

Venue: Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas Date: Saturday, 1 March (02:00 GMT, Sunday, 2 March)

Coverage: Live substance commentary connected the BBC Sport website and app

Lisa McIntosh is up-front with her thoughts connected England's women facing satellite champions Australia successful Las Vegas.

"Do you know? It makes maine consciousness truly proud," says the erstwhile Great Britain captain. "But I'm not going to prevarication - I'm a spot envious.

"I'd person loved to person conscionable turned up with my kitbag and got connected the level and played successful Vegas. But I'm made up for them."

When England's players measurement retired astatine Allegiant Stadium successful Vegas connected Saturday night, McIntosh is portion of the trailblazing radical of women they tin thank.

Twenty-nine years ago, with minimal help, that radical organised and self-funded a Great Britain circuit to Australia - and bushed the hosts. They stay the past British rugby league squad to triumph an Ashes series.

So they cognize what it takes to decision the Jillaroos.

"I deliberation what England request to bash is not fearfulness them," McIntosh says. "Australia are truthful good, that consecutive distant radical commencement to worry.

"But you spell retired determination and you beryllium confident. If you lucifer them subordinate for player, there's nary crushed wherefore you can't bushed them."

Back successful 1996, Great Britain's travelling enactment overcame the likelihood to decision Australia.

A bid that was connected a weapon borderline until its last seconds featured backing battles, scrambles for flights and accommodation, a circuit manager carrying £29,000 successful a briefcase, disappearing kit and affectional telephone calls home.

Then came the forging of lifelong friendships, belated Hall of Fame designation - and a triumph shield that vanished.

But archetypal came the combat conscionable to get connected to the pitch.

"It was fundamentally astir 2 weeks earlier we were owed to spell that we really knew we were going," says Jackie Sheldon, Great Britain's adjunct manager successful 1996.

Sheldon was caput of the Women's Amateur Rugby League Association (Warla), which past oversaw the British women's game, erstwhile it received an invitation successful 1995 to circuit Australia.

Accepting the connection was the casual part. Then came the trickier aspects. For a start, determination wasn't a Great Britain women's team.

So with Warla seat Anne Thompson, Sheldon acceptable up a committee to prosecute a caput coach, find players and signifier a backroom team. With nary budget, everyone had to beryllium persuaded to instrumentality connected the roles unpaid.

"These radical who got progressive were nonrecreational people," Sheldon says. "And they were each giving their clip for free.

"I would go: 'This is what I want, and I haven't got immoderate money. Will you travel connected board?' And they'd say: 'Yeah.' Because they believed successful what we were trying to do."

Ian Harris, a manager who worked successful section authorization sports development, took complaint of the team, with Sheldon and Thompson arsenic his assistants, and a squad of 26 was enactment together. Now they had to find £70,000 to wage for the tour.

Sheldon, herself past a assembly sports improvement officer, got to work. "We were not funded by anywhere," she says, "so I wrote a assistance exertion to the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, and we got thing similar £34,000 from them. And each of the players were fixed a people of astir £1,000 to raise."

As the summertime of 1996 approached, the plans were coming together.

Then with conscionable weeks to go, the team's circuit manager dropped retired - and chaos loomed.

Sheldon and Thompson knew Nikki Carter, a Hull Vixens subordinate who had absorption acquisition from moving astatine a attraction home. They asked if she would measurement successful arsenic circuit manager.

"I was asked: 'Do you deliberation you could assistance them out?'" Carter says.

"I was like: 'What bash you mean?' They said: 'Go to Australia with them.' I was like: 'Hmm, I'd emotion to. Best spell and inquire my boss, really.'

"But it abruptly started to unravel. Lots of things that should person been organised 12 weeks retired from going to Australia weren't really organised."

The touring enactment had nary flights, nary accommodation, nary kit.

Sheldon says: "The erstwhile manager, anterior to Nikki, had been tasked with securing the flights, and helium didn't unafraid them and didn't archer us, truthful it was lone astir 3 weeks beforehand that it each came retired that we had nary flights.

"My manager allowed maine clip successful enactment to telephone each the airlines to effort to get, I think, 32 flights astatine 3 weeks' notice."

As Sheldon sorted flights, Carter sourced kit, chased hotels and helped to implicit the fundraising. "Most of the wealth was raised successful the last 8 weeks," she says. They needed to acceptable up a slope relationship rapidly for the tour. And successful 1996, that was a problem.

"There was nary slope relationship acceptable up successful Australia," Carter says, "and it wasn't similar now, wherever you could ringing the slope and say: 'I'm going to enactment this wealth successful determination and I'm going to walk it from my slope account.'

"One of the girls connected the tour, who played for Wakefield, was a slope manager. And she said: 'It's not imaginable to acceptable the slope relationship up. It took excessively long.'

"So I ended up going to Australia with a briefcase with £29,000 successful currency and travellers' cheques, due to the fact that determination conscionable was nary different way. I carried that briefcase done the full circuit - everyplace I went, that went."

The Great Britain enactment made it to Australia, but determination were much obstacles. Arriving astatine Sydney Airport, they were deed with an contiguous transport problem. Their manager was lone large capable to acceptable either each the players, oregon each the kit - but not both. Carter, meanwhile, was organising squad meals connected the fly.

"I deliberation determination was a batch of bartering," skipper McIntosh says, "trying to get bully deals, wherever we'd get meal and beverage included."

The squad faced 7 matches successful 19 days: a Sydney Select broadside were thumped 86-0, earlier an Australian Capital Territory broadside were defeated 36-0 successful Canberra, wherever the archetypal Test against Australia was besides held.

Great Britain mislaid that lucifer 16-14, to a precocious punishment - amid controversy.

"We got a punishment successful the past fewer minutes," McIntosh says. "Karen Burrows converted it, but the officials disallowed it - they said it didn't spell over."

Next was a travel northbound to Brisbane, with the squad booked successful for an exhausting 12-hour, 700-mile-plus manager journey. Tour manager Carter intervened.

"We'd gone connected the manager from Sydney to Canberra, but we needed to alert to Brisbane," Carter says.

"So we went to the airdrome and I said: 'Would you beryllium capable to get america 32 formation tickets from Canberra to Brisbane tomorrow?' And the feline astatine the table looked astatine maine a spot strange. He tapped distant and helium said: 'Oh, yeah, yeah, we could bash that.' Then I had to negociate connected each the luggage.

"And past I said to him: 'OK. How would I pay: Cash oregon travellers' cheques?' And this guy's look was a picture. So I paid for 32 flights with immoderate travellers' cheques."

In Brisbane, the Great Britain and Australia players stayed successful the aforesaid accommodation. "They were similar pupil dorms," McIntosh says.

Here, determination was different situation for the tourists - keeping way of their kit.

"We were fixed each 2 shirts, truthful astatine the extremity of the tour, we had 1 to swap and 1 to support truthful we could frame," McIntosh says. "But the kit was laundered and a mates of shirts from our container went missing, including my spare fig 13 shirt.

"We ne'er recovered retired what happened to it, but we had our suspicions."

Britain bushed a Queensland XIII 22-8 to lukewarm up for the 2nd Test against Australia, and they won that cardinal lucifer 18-12 to level the series. Now it was backmost to Sydney for the decider.

But for immoderate members of the squad with young children, being acold distant from location was proving tough.

"I rang location astatine definite times of the time due to the fact that I knew the kids wouldn't beryllium there," Carter says. "My eldest girl was six erstwhile I went. If I rang home, she would beryllium crying down the phone, saying: 'I'm missing you, Mummy.' And it would past instrumentality days to retrieve from that telephone call.

"There was that pang of guilt due to the fact that I'm retired present and I'm having a large time. At the aforesaid time, I've near my children astatine location - and arsenic a mother, is that the close thing?

"It was hard and anybody successful that presumption who says it wasn't, I deliberation volition beryllium telling you porky pies."

After a 30-0 triumph implicit a Presidents XIII successful Sydney, Great Britain faced the deciding Test against Australia. It was a nail-biter.

The tourists built up a steadfast lead, with McIntosh moving fractional the magnitude of the transportation for a good idiosyncratic effort - but had to withstand a battering arsenic Australia fought back. As the timepiece ticked down, Britain held a slender 20-18 lead.

"We were defending connected our enactment for our lives for the past 10 minutes," McIntosh says. "It conscionable ne'er seemed to end."

The skipper has small representation of watching those closing minutes, having been concussed successful a clattering tackle.

"When the last whistle went," McIntosh says, "I said to Paula Clark, the squad physio: Have we won?

"We didn't realise however important it would beryllium successful clip - winning the Ashes successful Australia. It was conscionable like: 'We bushed the Aussies connected their ain turf and it was great.'"

The Britain squad returned to a quiescent reception astatine Heathrow. "We came done the airdrome and it was similar tumbleweed," McIntosh says.

But disconnected the backmost of the bid win, Sheldon convinced Sport England to money a nationalist women's rugby league improvement manager and was asked to instrumentality connected the role. She would besides beryllium England's caput manager done a 1998 circuit to New Zealand, the World Cups of 2000 and 2003 and, successful between, a instrumentality circuit to Australia successful 2002.

"The improvement dropped disconnected aft 2003, erstwhile I left," Sheldon says. "GB was not a precedence for the RFL astatine the time. It was re-established successful 2007 erstwhile they started getting Sport England backing for it, but neither England nor GB person beaten Australia since 2002.

"You tin spot the quality successful presumption of what Australia started to bash aft that period.

"It's physicality, gathering the team, strength of competition, and improvement of the women's game, truthful you've got breadth and extent of players coming through. It's an infrastructure you need, and you tin spot it successful Australia."

Belatedly, Great Britain's 1996 squad person been recognised. Former referee Julia Lee, who officiated during the tour, began driving the Women successful Rugby League project, a solemnisation of the sport's pistillate pioneers.

In 2022, McIntosh joined team-mates Brenda Dobek and Sally Milburn arsenic they became the archetypal women inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame.

Last October, Jane Banks and Michelle Land followed, portion the 1996 broadside became the archetypal squad to beryllium inducted.

"I deliberation it's bittersweet that it took truthful long, but I deliberation it's fantastic that we're successful a antithetic spot now," Carter says.

October's ceremonial successful Wigan brought virtually the full squad backmost together.

"There was a camaraderie that was built successful '96," Carter says. "We each met up for the Hall of Fame inauguration, and it was similar we'd ne'er been distant from each other."

Great Britain's players made long-lasting friendships with the Australians excessively - which yet reunited McIntosh with 1 of her shirts.

"I ne'er recovered the garment that was taken during the tour, but I did get backmost the 1 that I swapped," McIntosh says. "Their captain, who I swapped my garment with, returned it to me."

But there's 1 large memento from 1996 that no-one tin find.

Britain's players, wearing the Australia shirts they had conscionable swapped, posed for a squad representation aft winning the series.

In that peculiar moment, they showed disconnected their prize - a ample shield.

Three years ago, earlier an accumulation to observe their achievements, an entreaty was enactment retired to find the shield. It hasn't turned up.

"We thought we'd brought it back, and that it was astatine the RFL," McIntosh says. "But it's not."

The enigma remains unresolved. "Lisa ever said she reckoned I had it successful my attic," Sheldon says. "I've got conscionable astir everything other successful my attic but not that shield."

If anyone does person it, they're sitting connected a portion of history.

"It's successful somebody's attic, due to the fact that I can't spot wherever other it would person gone," Carter says. "So possibly everyone needs to look successful their attic!"