Lebanon captain Robbie Farah endured a drama-filled night against England but was proud of his side's effort in defeat after their 29-10 World Cup loss in Sydney on Saturday.
Farah noted his side's inexperience at international level played a part in the 19-point loss, but took positives from the result.
Apart from a 10-minute burst from the English to race out to a 16-point lead at the break, Lebanon never looked like a side that was intimidated by the more fancied outfit.
"As captain I can't be more proud of the effort they put in," Farah said after the game.
"We've spent two weeks together and didn't even go into camp leading into the French game.
"We had guys shoot off to work in between training sessions and the majority of our team are park footballers.
"So when you're coming up against world class players and a team that is ranked third in the world, we definitely didn't embarrass ourselves.
"Some things didn't go our way on the field but we fought until the 80th minute."
Lebanon coach Brad Fittler highlighted England's three tries in eight minutes before halftime as the momentum swinger.
"We lost control and didn't react very well. We got isolated in our thoughts," Fittler said of the first half.
"I thought the second half was pretty impressive, really.
"To put the whole thing in perspective, last week we had two blokes who were concussed who couldn't play.
"We had a bloke that was injured who is now getting an operation – they're all back-rowers, and it's a side where we don't have much depth.
"So to come and play like that is super impressive. Blokes playing in different positions, we had a six-day turnaround with travel involved.
"It was a pretty good response."
Farah refused to talk openly of the 43rd minute biting allegation against England winger Jermaine McGillvary, but held no regrets over making an official complaint on-field with the Rugby League World Cup match review committee set to look into the incident.
"Things happen in a split second on the field and you react," Farah said.
"I made the complaint on the field and I don't need to say much else."
The run-in with McGillvary wasn't the only controversy, with Farah in constant discussion with referee Ben Thaler over England winger Ryan Hall's four-pointer in the first half.
Hall crossed in the corner but replays suggested the ball was jolted free.
"The interpretation in the NRL is once you lose control you can't just have downward pressure, you need to regain control and I don't think he did that," Farah said.
"I just asked for a fair go both ways, there were a couple of hand in the ruck errors from us that he called errors when they could have been penalties.
"Then on the flipside we got penalised for one or two there.
"The way we dealt with those setbacks was a good lesson for us."
Lebanon will qualify for their first ever quarter-finals appearance regardless of their result against Australia next week if England can beat France in Perth.
