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

The Kangaroos' 14-4 triumph at the stadium in Liverpool on Saturday gave them a 2-0 series lead, making next week's Headingley encounter a dead rubber.

The England team had come into the series harbouring hopes of sending Australia to their initial series loss since the 1970s.

In the past two years, they had achieved a dominant victory over the Tongan side and a success over Samoa. But as the prestigious competition returned after a long break, the English were unable to make the leap against the world champions.

"We take full responsibility. We've had enough training periods to get it right on the field, and it's clear we've managed that," the captain stated.

"Full marks to the Kangaroos. They were strong in defense. But we've got loads to work on. It seems not as good as we expected we were entering this series.

"So it's a necessary lesson for us, and [there is] loads to develop."

The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Prove Merciless'

After being heavily outplayed in an error-strewn display at the national stadium, Wane side's were markedly enhanced on the weekend back in the traditional strongholds of the North.

In a rousing initial stages, the home side caused turnovers from the Kangaroos and had superior positioning and ball control, but importantly did not make it count on the scoreboard.

Notably, the English team have now scored just a single touchdown over the series so far, with St Helens hooker the forward powering through late on in the defeat in the capital.

On the other hand, Australia have accumulated six in two games - and when mistakes began to creep into the hosts' play just after the break, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be made to pay.

Initially the playmaker crossed, and then so too did the forward. From being level at four-all, England were down by double digits.

"Satisfied for the majority of the game. I thought for 70 minutes we were competitive," said Wane.

"The lapse for 10 minutes after the break hurt us severely. Munster's try was easy and should not be scored in a international fixture.

"We're heartbroken. So proud the squad had a dig but very frustrated with that second-half lapse, which hurt us heavily."

Although the upcoming global tournament in the Southern Hemisphere is just under a year from now, the team's primary concern will be on attempting to restore some pride, preventing a series whitewash and eliminating the issues that annoyed the coach.

"I hoped to see greater effort directed toward Australia. My aim was us to apply sustained attack in the game - we didn't do that 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 greater stress. We need to stop each of [tries] with greater resolve.

"Credit to the Kangaroos - that is not a criticism to them. They perform and are ruthless when they get a chance, and we failed to be, but in defense we must do improve.

"They will be determined to win all three Tests and we need to be obsessed to make it 2-1. I've said that to the players. It has to be our main aim. It's going to be a difficult week but whoever desires it the most will secure victory next week."

Competitive Edge Needs to Increase in Super League

England have participated in a comparable number of international fixtures to Australia since the last World Cup in 2022.

Yet the coach thinks that the quality of the NRL - and standard of the State of Origin matches between NSW and QLD - provide a much better grounding for performing at the top of the international game than what is on offer in the UK.

The England coach noted that the packed Super League fixture list left no time for him to coach his team during the campaign, which will only pose additional concerns around how England can narrow the difference to the Kangaroos before heading to the Southern Hemisphere in the next World Cup.

"The Australians play a large number of internationals in their league," Wane stated.

"We play 10-15 a year. It's crucial highly competitive games to enhance the competition and increase our chances of winning these high-stakes fixtures.

"It was impossible to even practice 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 understand in the shoes of the head coaches that need to win games. The competition is that congested. It's unfortunate but it's not the reason we were defeated today."