1988 was a transitional tour as it was originally planned that Great Britain would tour every 2 years hence this NZ section was played over a week with a separate tour to NZ which would take place in 1990 (the PNG leg was tacked on with 2 tests with one being a World Cup test) and another was originally planned for 1994 with matches in PNG replaced with matches against Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and The Cook Islands with the 1992 and 1996 tours planned to focus on PNG and Australia but after the 1990 tour flopped on the NZ side the planned 1994 tour was pushed back to 1992 and tacked on to a two week foray after the tour to Australia but the planned 1996 tour to Australia was cancelled due to the Super League War the replacement 1996 tour to the South Pacific and NZ was based on the cancelled 1994 tour