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According to skipper the England captain, England were handed a stark "wake-up call" as the Kangaroos secured the Rugby League Ashes.

The Kangaroos' 14-4 victory at the Merseyside venue on the weekend gave them a 2-0 series lead, making next week's final match in Leeds a meaningless fixture.

The England team had entered the series dreaming of sending Australia to their first Ashes series defeat since over five decades ago.

Recently, they had secured a dominant victory over Tonga and a success over Samoa. But as the prestigious competition resumed after a two-decade hiatus, England were unable to take the next step against the top-ranked team.

"We're not making excuses. There were enough sessions to perform correctly on the pitch, and I don't think we've achieved that," Williams stated.

"Full marks to the Kangaroos. They were excellent defensively. But there's plenty to work on. It seems not as prepared as we thought we were entering this series.

"This serves as a good reality check for us, and there is much to enhance."

Australia 'Turn Up and Are Merciless'

Having been soundly beaten in an mistake-ridden performance at Wembley, England's were significantly better on Saturday back in the core regions of England's north.

In an inspiring initial stages, England elicited errors from the Australians and had superior positioning and ball control, but unfortunately did not make it count on the scoreboard.

Tellingly, England have now scored just one score over two full matches, with St Helens hooker Daryl Clark scoring late on in the setback in the capital.

Conversely, Australia have racked up half a dozen across the series - and when blunders began to affect the England's play just after the interval, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be severely punished.

First the playmaker crossed, and then so too did the forward. From being tied at 4-4, England were trailing by 10.

"Proud for the majority of the game. In my view for 70 minutes we were good," said the coach.

"The switch off for a brief period after half-time cost us immensely. Munster's try was easy and should never happen in a Test match.

"We're heartbroken. Extremely pleased the players had a go but very frustrated with that second-half lapse, which cost us dearly."

While the next World Cup in Oceania is just under 12 months away, England's primary concern will be on trying to salvage honor, preventing a clean sweep and eradicating the issues that annoyed the coach.

"I wanted to see more directed toward the opposition. My aim was us to build pressure in the game - we fell short last week," added the veteran coach.

"We did this week. It's just a lack of precision in our offensive play where we could have put them under greater stress. We need to defend both [tries] more effectively.

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

"They will be obsessed to win the series whitewash 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's going to be a challenging week but whoever strives for it the most will get the win next week."

Competitive Edge Must to Improve in Domestic Competition

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

However Wane argues that the strength of the NRL - and standard of the domestic rivalry matches between NSW and Queensland - provide a much better foundation for competing at the top of the international game than what is available in the Europe.

The England coach commented that the hectic domestic league calendar allowed little opportunity for him to coach his squad during the season, which will only pose additional concerns around how the national team can bridge the gap to the Kangaroos before travelling to the Southern Hemisphere in 2026.

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

"We play 10-15 a year. We need highly competitive games to improve the competition and increase our chances of winning these high-stakes fixtures.

"I couldn't even practice with the players. We never got on the field in the season and I had the complete support of all clubs in the domestic competition.

"I have also been in the shoes of the head coaches that must to win games. The competition is that packed. It's a pity but that's not the cause we were defeated today."