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According to leader George Williams, the national team were given a brutal "sobering lesson" as the Kangaroos won the Rugby League Ashes.

The Kangaroos' 14-4 victory at the Merseyside venue on the weekend gave them a commanding series edge, making next week's sold-out third Test a academic contest.

Shaun Wane's side had entered the series holding aspirations of inflicting Australia to their initial series loss since over five decades ago.

In the past two years, they had achieved a dominant victory over Tonga and a 2-0 triumph over the Samoan team. But as the Rugby League Ashes resumed after a long break, the English were failed to make the leap against the top-ranked team.

"We're not making excuses. We've had enough sessions to get it right on the pitch, and it's clear we've achieved that," the captain stated.

"Credit to Australia. They proved strong defensively. But there's plenty to address. It seems not as prepared as we expected we were entering this series.

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

The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Are Ruthless'

Having been comprehensively defeated in an mistake-ridden performance at the national stadium, Wane side's were much improved on Saturday back in the core regions of the North.

In an inspiring first half, England forced mistakes from the Kangaroos and had dominant territory and possession, but crucially did not convert opportunities on the points tally.

Tellingly, the English team have now scored just a single touchdown over the series so far, with player the forward barging over late on in the loss in the capital.

In contrast, Australia have scored six so far - and when errors began to appear in the England's play just after the half-time, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be made to pay.

Initially Cameron Munster crossed, and then so too did Hudson Young. From being level at 4-4, the home side were 10 points adrift.

"Satisfied for the bulk of the game. In my view for 70 minutes we were competitive," said Wane.

"The switch off for 10 minutes after half-time cost us greatly. The first try was avoidable and should never happen in a international fixture.

"We're heartbroken. So proud the players had a go but very frustrated with that post-interval, which proved costly dearly."

Although the upcoming global tournament in Australia and Papua New Guinea is just under a year from now, England's primary concern will be on trying to regain respect, preventing a 3-0 sweep and eradicating the mistakes that irritated Wane.

"I hoped to see additional intensity thrown at the opposition. My aim was us to apply sustained attack in the game - we fell short last week," added the veteran coach.

"We did this week. The issue is a lack of precision in our offense where we could have put them under more pressure. It's essential to stop each of [tries] better.

"Credit to Australia - that is not a criticism to them. They arrive and are ruthless when they seize opportunities, and we failed to be, but in defense we can and should do enhance.

"They will be determined to win 3-0 and we need to be obsessed to make it a respectable scoreline. I've said that to the squad. This must become our main aim. It will be a tough week but the side that wants it the most will secure victory next week."

Competitive Edge Must to Elevate in Domestic Competition

The English side have participated in a comparable number of international fixtures to the Kangaroos since the previous global tournament in recent years.

Yet the coach believes that the strength of the Australian league - and quality of the domestic rivalry matches between NSW and QLD - deliver a more effective grounding for performing at the top of the international game than what is on offer in the UK.

Wane noted that the congested Super League calendar left little opportunity for him to coach his team during the campaign, which will only pose additional concerns around how the national team can bridge the gap to Australia before travelling to the Southern Hemisphere in 2026.

"The Australians play a large number of internationals in their competition," he added.

"England play 10-15 a year. We need highly competitive games to enhance the domestic league and boost our chances of winning these types of matches.

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

"I have also been in the shoes of the head coaches that must to win games. The league is that tight. It's unfortunate but that's not the reason we lost today."