By Pranav Soneji BBC Sport at Elland Road

Report: GB 4-44 Australia Farrell rues costly GB mistakes

After what was billed as the day of destiny for Great Britain's success-starved players and fans alike, there was a certain sense of inevitability about the result.

Yet again the Australians cranked their game to another level to outplay and outclass their hosts when it mattered most.

And once more the Lions' psychological inferiority in pressure situations cost them the victory they so desperately craved.

The usually ferocious Adrian Morley barely registered his presence on the pitch and admitted he and his team-mates were over-awed by the atmosphere.

"We played the occasion rather than the game and went away from what we had been successful at in the last few weeks," he said.

"I think the pressure got to us slightly and Australia are the kind of team that make you pay when you don't stick to the game plan."

The last time Great Britain were comprehensively beaten on home soil was back in 1963 when they lost 50-12 against the Australians in Swinton.

It was surreal, we were looking around at each other in the dressing room at half-time thinking 'What's just happened?' Martin Gleeson

"I want to publicly apologise to the spectators, we saved our worst performance for the final," said Morley.

"They made the most of their chances but we were pretty awful. We didn't do what we practised."

The 24-12 victory in game five proved the Kangaroos were not unbeatable.

The slick green and gold machine had been broken in Wigan when a flu-ravaged Great Britain produced one of the most memorable performances of recent times - and the same was expected again.

But rather than losing a tight game in the final few seconds - as is usually the case against the Kangaroos - the Lions capitulated in the first few minutes.

Terry Newton's indiscipline gifted man-of-the-match Darren Lockyer a simple penalty in front of the posts.

Lockyer was the key to Australia's successful demolition of the Lions

The Australian captain went on to produce a performance worthy of the greatest the game has ever seen, stretching Great Britain's battered defence this way and that, helping himself to a try in the process.

The first-half surrender stunned the players as much as the capacity crowd at Elland Road.

"It was surreal, we were looking around at each other in the dressing room at half-time thinking 'What's just happened?'," said centre Martin Gleeson.

"We were getting smashed. We knew we couldn't win the game from 38-0 down at half-time."

"But there were 40,000 fans out there, we couldn't let it snowball any further."

Much was expected of the half-back pairing of Iestyn Harris and Sean Long, but neither could get the ball out of Lockyer's hands long enough to make anything remotely positive happen during the first half.

Almost every kick and offload found an Australian player as Great Britain's game crumbled in a way no-one - not even the Australians - were expecting.