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In the words of leader George Williams, the national team were handed a brutal "sobering lesson" as Australia clinched 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 Headingley encounter a dead rubber.

The national squad had come into the series holding aspirations of inflicting Australia to their first Ashes series defeat since the 1970s.

Recently, they had achieved a 3-0 series win over Tonga and a success over the Samoan team. But as the Rugby League Ashes resumed after a two-decade hiatus, the English were unable to take the next step against the reigning title holders.

"We're not making excuses. We've had enough training periods to execute properly on the field, and I don't think we've quite done that," the captain told.

"Full marks to the Kangaroos. They were excellent in defense. But there's loads to work on. We're probably not as strong as we expected we were going into this series.

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

The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Prove Clinical'

After being comprehensively defeated in an mistake-ridden performance at the national stadium, England's were significantly better on the weekend back in the traditional strongholds of England's north.

During an energetic initial stages, the home side elicited errors from the Kangaroos and had all the field position and possession, but importantly did not capitalize on the scoreboard.

Notably, England have now scored just one try over 160 minutes, with St Helens hooker the forward barging over late on in the defeat in the capital.

In contrast, the Kangaroos have scored half a dozen in two games - and when mistakes began to affect the hosts' play just after the interval, it was a case of when, not if, they were going to be severely punished.

First the playmaker went over, and then so too did Hudson Young. From being level at 4-4, England were down by double digits.

"Satisfied for the majority of the game. In my view for most of the match we were solid," said the coach.

"The drop in intensity for a brief period after the break hurt us greatly. The first try was soft and should not be scored in a top-level game.

"We're devastated. So proud the squad had a go but so disappointed with that second-half lapse, which cost us significantly."

Although the next World Cup in Oceania is just under a year from now, the team's immediate focus will be on attempting to regain respect, avoiding a 3-0 sweep and eliminating the errors that irritated the coach.

"I hoped to see additional intensity thrown at the opposition. 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 attack where we could have put them under greater stress. We need to defend both [tries] with greater resolve.

"Credit to Australia - that is not a criticism to them. They arrive and are ruthless when they get a chance, and we weren't, but defensively we can and should do better.

"They will be obsessed to win 3-0 and we need to be just as focused to make it 2-1. I've said that to the squad. It has to be our obsession. It will be a difficult week but whoever strives for it the greatest will secure victory next week."

Competitive Edge Needs to Increase in Super League

The English side have played a similar number of Test matches to Australia since the previous global tournament in 2022.

Yet Wane thinks that the quality of the Australian league - and quality of the domestic rivalry matches between New South Wales and Queensland - offer a more effective grounding for competing at the top of the international game than what is available in the Europe.

The England coach commented that the packed Super League fixture schedule left no time for him to work with his players during the season, which will only pose more issues around how the national team can close the divide to Australia before travelling to Oceania in 2026.

"They play a large number of internationals in their league," he remarked.

"We play ten to fifteen a year. We need highly competitive games to boost the domestic league and improve our chances of winning these high-stakes fixtures.

"I couldn't even train with the squad. We never got on the field in the campaign and despite having the total cooperation of everyone in Super League.

"I have also been in the shoes of the head coaches that need to win games. The competition is that tight. It's a pity but it's not the cause we lost today."