later had the honor of scoring the club's first hat-trick. During the season Lewis was awarded the Harry Sunderland Medal as Australia's player of the 1988 Ashes series against Great Britain, whose 26–12 win in the dead rubber third test at the Sydney Football Stadium (SFS) was their first test victory over Australia since 1978. Lewis and teammate Sam Backo also joined Ken Irvine as the only Australian players to score a try in each test of an Ashes series. On 20 July 1988 Lewis played for Australia in their record 62-point win over Papua New Guinea, scoring a try. At the end of the season he captained Australia to victory over New Zealand in the final of the 1985 - 1988 Rugby League World Cup. Australia won the game 25–12 in front of 47,363 fans at Auckland's home of rugby union Eden Park, though Lewis broke his right forearm in the 15th minute of the game while tackling Kiwi winger Tony Iro. After receiving treatment, he bravely played on for a further 20 minutes, making a number of one armed tackles despite being an obvious target in defense. Late in the first half when it became clear that with a 21–0 lead Australia would win the game, coach Don Furner replaced Lewis with Terry Lamb. Lewis won another man-of-the-match award in the second game of the 1989 State of Origin series. Lewis scored a famous try in the second half of the game played at the SFS, when he went on a 40-metre cross field run to the line where he outpaced a much younger Laurie Daley, and held off NSW fullback Garry Jack's tackle over the last 10 metres to score in the corner. From there Lewis was captain of the Australian team for their mid-season tour of New Zealand. At the end of the 1990 season, due to salary cap restrictions, Lewis was not made a large enough offer to keep him at the Broncos, with Bennett citing the need to retain younger talent. Gold Coast Seagulls and coaching Following the souring of his relationship with the Broncos, Lewis was unwilling to move to Sydney for family reasons and in 1991, he joined the Gold Coast Seagulls and was appointed as captain by coach Malcolm Clift. He won his eighth and last man-of-the-match award in the first game of the State of Origin series that year, before