Oliver Gildart says squad selection contributed to Great Britain's poor show Down Under

The Wigan centre recently returned to training with his club after dislocating his shoulder in the opening Test loss to Tonga.

The Lions – revived after a 12-year absence – went on to lose the following three matches.

And reflecting on the trip, Gildart says they were tempting fate by taking so few outside backs.

“I don’t know what went wrong. I think it was down to squad selection, we had something like 10 halfbacks, one centre, two wingers...” said Gilbert.

“I think it was destined that we were going to have injuries in positions that we needed. I got injured, so did Zak (Hardaker) and I think it disturbed the squad and we just couldn’t get that flow going. “

As well as injuries to Gildart and Hardaker – who played at centre – the Lions also lost one of their only two specialist wingers, Ryan Hall, during the tour which forced stand-off Blake Austin to play out of position. They were dealt a blow before they departed with injuries to St Helens duo Tommy Makinson and Mark Percival in the Grand Final.

“Tommy dropped out, he’d have been there, and I think Mark is an outstanding centre, he should play at that level,” added Gildart.

Despite their failure on tour – which also included two Tests against New Zealand and one in Papua New Guinea – Gildart enjoyed the experience.

And he hopes coach Wayne Bennett continues to lead England for the visit of Australia next year ahead of the 2021 World Cup.

Bennett, who handed Gildart his Test debut last year, is out of contract.

“I’ve enjoyed being coached by Wayne; he’s been good for me,” said GIldart.

“He did quite a bit of one to one stuff with me and it filled me with a lot of confidence.

“The tour didn’t go how we expected it to go but if you look at last year’s series against New Zealand we won that.”

Gildart, meanwhile, has joined stars including ex-Warriors Sam Tomkins and Pat Richards in auctioning a shirt to raise money for Rob Burrow, who revealed last week he is battling motor neurone disease.

A leading bid of £1,200 had been placed on Gildart’s debut, and only, GB shirt.

“Finding out the news about Rob Burrow has really hit home,” wrote Gildart on social media. “Not only is he a legend of the game, my grandad also suffered from this horrible disease.”