From the Kiwis vs Leeds post-game press conference:
Reporter: "Do you see yourself playing in England sometime?"
Issac Luke: "I'm playing right now in England."
Reporter: "I meant joining a club of course...you clever bugger."
Stephen Kearney: "He's just signed a new contract with the Warriors, so I don't think it will be in the next couple of years."
Best game: Third test. Not the Kiwis' best performance, but the match had more drama, intensity and action than the other two tests combined.
The 'Passion for league' award: The town folk of Hull. More than 600 people waited for more than 45 minutes on a cold, rainy day to watch the Kiwis train. And when locals often wanted to talk about the glory days of James Leuluai, Dane O'Hara, Fred Ah Kuoi (Hull) and Gary Prohm and Mark Broadhurst (Hull KR).
Best try: Jordan Kahu's effort in the dying minutes of the third test. It was too little, too late, but still a spectacular team effort.
Best (verbal) comeback (2):
From the post third test press conference with Adam Blair and Stephen Kearney.
Reporter: Adam, how does losing a test series - fairly narrowly - compare with losing a grand final - fairly narrowly?
Kearney: Geez, your'e on top of the world today, aren't you?
Reporter: (to Blair) Sorry about that question mate.
Kearney: No you're not.
Blair: It's been a tough year but I've enjoyed it.
The `Eden Park award' for excellence in customer experience:
Goes to the English Rugby League. They covered all the bases, providing excellent pre-match entertainment - including massed choirs and opera singers, quality programmes that are worth reading, decent stadium grub and courteous match day staff. And the fan zone outside the Olympic Stadium was particularly impressive.
Worst climate: Wigan. The Kiwis were blessed with mild weather for most of the tour, until they arrived in the town that Sam Tomkins likes to call `God's country'. They braved freezing cold and icy rain for their captains run then a repeat for the third match.
Best Kiwis player: Tohu Harris. Played every minute of each test on tour and was a valued contributor in all of them. Defensively solid on the edges with some fine attacking moments, including a try in the first test and a crucial assist in the second test win.
The 'Carpe Diem' award for seizing the moment: Kiwis assistant coach and Liverpool fan David Kidwell nabbing the signatures of coach Jurgen Klopp and star striker Daniel Sturridge after the team's training run at Liverpool's Melwood headquarters.
The 'Lost and found' award goes to Sam Burgess, who also scoops the 'Winston Peters medal for stealing someone's thunder'.
Just days after England's Rugby World Cup exit, the sight of Sam mixing and mingling with his former league teammates, after their game against France in Leigh, told a tale that developed into a story which would overshadow the buildup to the second test.
Biggest absentee: The Kiwis lacked the spark that Shaun Johnson would have provided, and it showed in their attacking game. In the previous five tests with Kieran Foran and Johnson the Kiwis have averaged almost four tries a game. Across the England series it was two per match.
Most unlikely sight: 23 members of the Kiwis team, plus staff, crammed into one carriage of the London Underground, during rush hour as the team abandoned their bus to get to their hotel.
Best English player: Sean O'Loughlin. The English skipper was immense, scoring the match-sealing tries in both the first and third test victories. One of only three English survivors from the 2007 series, `Lockers' had only tasted disappointment in the intervening years but made up for it in his first series on home soil as captain.
The 'Mark Graham legacy award' for toughness: Adam Blair. The Kiwis co-captain defied a serious calf injury to recover in time for the first test, then bounced back from a concussion in that match to play the rest of the series.
Best atmosphere: The wall of noise created by the Wigan crowd during the third test.
Worst decision: Allowing English referee Ben Thaler to control the deciding third test. He had a reasonable game but a neutral official would have been optimal.
Biggest disappointment: The inability of the Kiwis to take their chances in the third test.
Best ambassador: Sir Peter Leitch. The `Mad Butcher' charmed the locals everywhere he went, with his unique mix of business and banter. His speech at a Leeds Rhinos charity dinner - which had the entire audience at first in shock, then in stitches - was a particular highlight.
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