By Paul Sculthorpe St Helens and Great Britain star

It is proving difficult to get my head round our defeat in the third Test of the Think! Road Safety Series against Australia.

But I'm not the only one in the Great Britain camp who is shell-shocked.

Kris Radlinski (left) is crestfallen as Australia level the game

Looking at the faces of my team-mates in changing room after the game, it was obvious that the reverse had hit everyone hard.

I don't know what it is about the last five minutes of a match, but we just seem to lose our way.

And for the third time in a row we have blown our chance of beating Australia.

Saturday's reverse at Huddersfield was even harder to stomach because we were leading 12-6 with just two minutes to go.

We were upset with ourselves for allowing the Aussies to draw level, but then they went and scored again. It was heart-breaking.

We may have run the world champions close in all three Tests but that is little consolation right at this moment.

I'm looking forward to the Tri-Nations but it will never take the place of the Ashes

We knew we had a good chance of clinching the Ashes for the first time in more than 30 years before the series started, so to lose 3-0 is tough to take.

We really wanted to finish on a high by winning at the McAlpine Stadium - and for a long time it looked as though we would.

My second-half try looked as though it would be the crucial score, but then it all went wrong again in the final two minutes.

Credit to the Aussies, they never know when they are beaten, but we threw victory away - and that hurts.

Because of the introduction of the Tri-Nations Series involving Britain, Australia and New Zealand, it will be several years before we get another shot at the Ashes. That's disappointing.