AND so the natural order of world rugby league is restored with Mal Meninga’s Australia side, with the brains trust of Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston pulling the strings, back to being top dogs.

There was a sense on Sunday at Anfield that the Green and Golds had simply been toying with us, with the effortless way in which they created space, offloaded at will and supported at pace.

On Sunday’s evidence the gap between the nations is pretty wide and British rugby league has plenty to do to close that gaping chasm.

The other matter for debate is what form of meaningful international competition will take place in between the four-yearly World Cups in 2017 Down Under, 2021 in England and 2025 in North America.

The future of the Four Nations is uncertain with Rugby League International Federation’s chief executive David Collier not knowing if or when the tournament will be held again.

The end of the Four Nations would not necessarily be a bad thing.

For me it is always too similar to the semis and final of the World Cup that the competitions blur into each other.

I would be happy to see that end, but rather than concocting schemes to fill in the gaps with World Nines and ad hoc autumn internationals we should take a leaf out of rugby union’s book and stick with tradition.

Their Six Nations, British Lions tours and autumn internationals dovetail with a World Cup that has massively propelled the 15-man code into a bigger domestic and global market in the past two decades.

We need to restore the Ashes series between Great Britain and Australia.

The three-match rubber took place 39 times from 1908 before meeting an untimely end in 2003 – sadly only twice in the Super League era.

That last one may have ended in a 3-0 defeat, but GB were so close in all three and had the handicap of the first minute dismissal of Adrian Morley in the opening test to contend with.

Each one of those had good gates, although not as many as 50,000 plus gates that Wembley and Old Trafford had in the late 80s and early 90s.

Although Britain have not won the Ashes since 1970, there were five series between 1988 and 2001 which ended 2-1 with some much closer than others.

Who could ever forget the 1990 series - and that tense second test where Meninga broke British hearts at Old Trafford.

For elite players, the pursuit of the Ashes was like seeking the Holy Grail.

There was a hunger for it among players and fans alike.

Ditching it has to have been one of the daftest decisions the sport has ever made.

Hopefully this window will give them, particularly the Australians, a nudge.

The game as a whole – no matter how strong it is in the NRL – needs the lifeblood that is meaningful international competition, particularly when rugby union and cricket are constantly growing and advancing their own.

And that should involve an Ashes series every four years, with the restoration of the Great Britain team for that.

The other two years should be filled by a regular Kiwi test programme with the home nations splitting again the year before the World Cup series.

It is great that the World Cup is sorted for 2025 – now let’s just get 2018 onwards sorted!