THIRTY years after him and his compatriots famously went through all 22 matches unbeaten during their tour of Great Britain and France, Mal Meninga is back as coach of Australia as they seek to capture this year's Ladbrokes Four Nations title.

It was Meninga's second visit to these shores with the Kangaroos, having been part of the famous 'Invincibles' team which had cut a swathe through everything the Northern Hemisphere had to throw at them four years prior – with Barrow being one of their victims.

The 1986 tourists would do likewise, acquiring the 'Unbeatables' nickname in the process, and the Barrow public got the chance to see Meninga and the Australians close-up when they stopped off here again to play Cumbria on Tuesday, October 21.

International sides have been visiting Barrow since the first Kangaroo Tour during the 1908/09 season, when 6,500 people packed into the old Cavendish Park ground to watch the Australians record a 21-5 victory over the the town's team.

But such matches are an increasingly rare occurrence in the modern era, with the recent visit of Scotland for Liam Harrison's testimonial game being the first time since Cumbria beat the USA 70-0 in 2007 that a national team had played at the ground.

Indeed, 1986 would – so far – prove to be the last time Australia would visit the area during a tour, with the Barrow contingent of Michael James, Tony Kay, David Cairns, Dave Kendall and Steve Mossop making up a sizeable contingent of Cumbria coach Phil Kitchin's squad.

It had hardly been the ideal build-up to the match for them though as Barrow had suffered a 36-20 defeat away to Bradford Northern in the Stones Bitter Championship two days prior, while the ad-hoc nature of the county side was perhaps summed up by their preparations.

As was reported by the Evening Mail at the time, the team arrived at Craven Park at 3pm, headed over to Walney Central for a light training session, then went to Clarke's Restaurant in Rampside for a light team followed by a reception at Josephines night spot with Cumbria president Mr J Howarth.

Whereas he match against Barrow four years earlier had seen a closely-contested first half before the Australians ran away after the break to secure a 29-2 victory, the visitors took little time to get settled on this occasion and went ahead when Gary Belcher set up Terry Lamb for a try.

Stand-off Lamb, who was on the tour as back-up for captain Wally Lewis, would go on to grab a hat-trick in the game, as would his half-back partner Greg Alexander, with Meninga having a hand in several of those scores.

The Souths and Canberra Raiders great, who also had a season on these shores with St Helens, would get on the scoresheet before the interval, with Cumbria's tries coming either side of half time through Whitehaven duo Les Holliday and Graeme Cameron.

“Last night's match game was exhibition rugby by experts at the craft,” wrote the Evening Mail's Nick Helliwell in his match report. “Cumbria were a rag-taggle army against a well-equipped battle unit.”

But even the Great Britain team had little answer to the mighty Australians, losing the Test series 3-0. Indeed, the closest the Kangaroos came to suffering a loss was against First Division strugglers Oldham in a fiery clash which they eventually edged 22-16.

England fans will be hoping the current side do not have more pain inflicted on them by Meninga's tourists when they face Australia in the must-win Four Nations clash at the Olympic Stadium in London tomorrow.

Cumbria: Gary Smith; Michael James, Kevin Pape, Tony Kay, David Beck; Graeme Cameron, David Cairns; Dave Kendall, Colin Falcon, Jeff Simpson, Steve Mossop, Les Holliday, Milton Huddart. Reserves: Norman Lofthouse, Bill Pattison.

Australia: Gary Belcher; Dale Shearer, Chris Mortimer, Mal Meninga, Michael O'Connor; Terry Lamb, Greg Alexander; Phil Daley, Benny Elias, Martin Bella, Paul Dunn, Les Davidson, Paul Langmack. Reserve: Paul Sironen.