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As stated by skipper George Williams, the national team were handed a brutal "wake-up call" as Australia won the Rugby League Ashes.

Australia's 14-4 victory at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on the weekend gave them a commanding series edge, making next week's sold-out third Test a dead rubber.

The England team had entered the series holding aspirations of sending Australia to their maiden Ashes setback since over five decades ago.

Recently, they had achieved a clean sweep over Tonga and a series win over Samoa. But as the Rugby League Ashes returned after a long break, England were failed to advance further against the top-ranked team.

"We're not making excuses. There were enough sessions to execute properly on the pitch, and it's clear we've managed that," the captain told.

"Full marks to the Kangaroos. They were good defensively. But there's plenty to work on. We're probably not as prepared as we expected we were going into this series.

"So it's a good lesson for us, and there is much to develop."

The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Are Clinical'

After being heavily outplayed in an sloppy showing at the national stadium, England's were much improved on Saturday back in the core regions of northern England.

In a rousing opening period, the home side forced mistakes from the Australians and had superior positioning and possession, but importantly did not make it count on the points tally.

Tellingly, England have now managed just one try over the series so far, with St Helens hooker the forward scoring late on in the setback in London.

Conversely, the Kangaroos have accumulated six so far - and when mistakes began to affect the hosts' play just after the half-time, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be heavily penalized.

First the playmaker scored, and then so too did Hudson Young. From being level at 4-4, the home side were 10 points adrift.

"Satisfied for the majority of the game. I thought for most of the match we were competitive," said the coach.

"The drop in intensity for 10 minutes after half-time hurt us severely. The first try was easy and should not be scored in a international fixture.

"The team is devastated. Extremely pleased the players had a go but so disappointed with that after half-time, which cost us significantly."

Although the next World Cup in Oceania is just under a year from now, England's primary concern will be on trying to regain respect, preventing a 3-0 sweep and addressing the issues that annoyed the coach.

"I hoped to see greater effort thrown at the opposition. I wanted us to apply sustained attack in the game - we fell short last week," added the veteran coach.

"We managed this week. It's just a lack of precision in our attack where we could have applied under greater stress. We need to stop each of [tries] with greater resolve.

"Fair play to the Kangaroos - that is not a criticism to them. They turn up and are clinical when they capitalize, and we failed to be, but in defense we can and should do better.

"The Australians will be focused to win 3-0 and we need to be equally determined to make it a respectable scoreline. I've said that to the players. This must become our obsession. It's going to be a difficult week but whoever desires it the most will secure victory next week."

Intensity Needs to Elevate in Domestic Competition

England have participated in a comparable number of international fixtures to Australia since the previous global tournament in recent years.

However Wane argues that the quality of the Australian league - and quality of the domestic rivalry matches between New South Wales and Queensland - provide a much better grounding for competing at the highest level of the global stage than what is available in the northern hemisphere.

The England coach added that the hectic domestic league calendar allowed no time for him to work with his squad during the campaign, which will only raise further questions around how England can narrow the difference to Australia before travelling to the Southern Hemisphere in 2026.

"The Australians play a lot of internationals in their league," he stated.

"We play ten to fifteen a year. It's crucial really intense games to enhance the domestic league and improve our prospects of succeeding in these sorts of games.

"I couldn't even practice with the players. There was no chance to trained together in the campaign and I had the total cooperation of everyone in the domestic competition.

"I have also been in the position of the club managers that must to win games. The competition is that congested. It's unfortunate but it's not the reason we were defeated today."