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According to skipper George Williams, the national team were handed a stark "sobering lesson" as the Kangaroos won the Rugby League Ashes.

The Kangaroos' decisive 14-4 win at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on the weekend gave them a commanding series edge, making the upcoming Headingley encounter a meaningless fixture.

The England team had entered the series holding aspirations of inflicting Australia to their initial series loss since 1970.

In the past two years, they had secured a dominant victory over Tonga and a series win over the Samoan team. But as the prestigious competition returned after a two-decade hiatus, the English were unable to take the next step against the world champions.

"No excuses from us. We've had enough sessions to get it right on the field, and it's clear we've managed that," Williams told.

"Credit to Australia. They proved excellent in defense. But there's plenty to address. We're probably not as strong as we thought we were entering this series.

"This serves as a good reality check for us, and we have plenty to develop."

Australia 'Turn Up and Are Clinical'

After being heavily outplayed in an mistake-ridden performance at Wembley, England's were much improved on Saturday back in the traditional strongholds of the North.

In an inspiring opening period, the home side caused turnovers from the Australians and had all the field position and ball control, but importantly did not convert opportunities on the points tally.

Significantly, the English team have now managed just one score over two full matches, with St Helens hooker Daryl Clark scoring late on in the loss in the capital.

On the other hand, Australia have accumulated half a dozen across the series - and when blunders began to appear in the hosts' play just after the interval, it was a case of certainty, they were going to be severely punished.

First the playmaker scored, and then so too did the forward. From being level at four-all, the home side were 10 points adrift.

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

"The drop in intensity for 10 minutes after the break cost us severely. Munster's try was soft and should not be scored in a Test match.

"We're devastated. Extremely pleased the squad had a fight but very frustrated with that second-half lapse, which hurt us heavily."

While the next World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere is just under 12 months away, the team's primary concern will be on trying to salvage honor, avoiding a 3-0 sweep and eradicating the issues that irritated Wane.

"I wanted to see greater effort thrown at Australia. My aim was us to apply sustained attack in the game - we fell short last week," added the 61-year-old.

"We managed this week. It's just a minor refinements in our attack where we could have put them under more pressure. We need to defend both [tries] better.

"Credit to Australia - that is no slight to them. They turn up and are merciless when they seize opportunities, and we weren't, but defensively we must do enhance.

"They will be focused to win the series whitewash and we need to be equally determined to make it a respectable scoreline. I've told that to the players. It has to be our obsession. It will be a challenging week but the side that desires it the greatest will emerge victorious next week."

Competitive Edge Must to Elevate in Super League

England have played a comparable number of international fixtures to Australia since the previous global tournament in 2022.

However Wane argues that the strength of the NRL - and quality of the State of Origin matches between New South Wales and QLD - provide a more effective preparation for performing at the top of the international game than what is available in the northern hemisphere.

Wane added that the congested Super League calendar left no time for him to train his squad during the campaign, which will only raise more issues around how England can bridge the gap to the Kangaroos before travelling to Oceania in the next World Cup.

"They play a lot of internationals in their competition," he remarked.

"England play 10-15 a year. We need highly competitive games to improve the competition and improve our prospects of winning these sorts of games.

"I couldn't even train with the players. We never trained together in the season and I had the total cooperation of all clubs in the domestic competition.

"I understand in the position of the head coaches that must to win games. The league is that tight. It's a pity but it's not the cause we got beaten today."