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According to leader George Williams, England were given a brutal "wake-up call" as the Kangaroos secured the prestigious series.

Australia's 14-4 victory at the Merseyside venue on the weekend gave them a commanding series edge, making the upcoming Headingley encounter a meaningless fixture.

Shaun Wane's side had come into the series holding aspirations of sending the Kangaroos to their initial series loss since 1970.

Recently, they had secured a clean sweep over the Tongan side and a 2-0 triumph over Samoa. But as the prestigious competition resumed after a two-decade hiatus, the English were unable to make the leap against the top-ranked team.

"No excuses from us. We've had enough preparations to perform correctly on the pitch, and it's clear we've achieved that," Williams stated.

"Australia deserve praise. They proved strong in defense. But there's plenty to work on. It seems not as good as we thought we were entering this series.

"So it's a necessary lesson for us, and we have plenty to improve on."

Australia 'Turn Up and Are Ruthless'

After being soundly beaten in an mistake-ridden performance at Wembley, Wane side's were much improved on the weekend back in the core regions of northern England.

In a rousing first half, the home side caused turnovers from the Kangaroos and had dominant territory and ball control, but importantly did not make it count on the scoreboard.

Tellingly, the English team have now managed just one score over 160 minutes, with player Daryl Clark scoring late on in the loss in London.

On the other hand, the Kangaroos have racked up six in two games - and when errors began to appear in the hosts' play just after the break, it was a case of certainty, they were going to be severely punished.

Initially the playmaker went over, and then so too did the forward. From being level at 4-4, England were 10 points adrift.

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

"The lapse for 10 minutes after half-time cost us severely. The first try was easy and should never happen in a international fixture.

"The team is heartbroken. Extremely pleased the players had a go but very frustrated with that second-half lapse, which hurt us dearly."

While the next World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere is just under 12 months away, England's primary concern will be on attempting to salvage honor, avoiding a series whitewash and eradicating the issues that annoyed Wane.

"I wanted to see additional intensity thrown at Australia. I wanted us to maintain momentum 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 applied under more pressure. We need to defend both [tries] better.

"Credit to the Kangaroos - that is not a criticism to them. They turn up and are merciless when they seize opportunities, and we failed to be, but defensively we must do enhance.

"The Australians will be determined to win all three Tests and we need to be just as focused to make it a competitive series. I've told that to the players. It has to be our obsession. It will be a difficult week but whoever desires it the most will emerge victorious next week."

Intensity Needs to Improve in Domestic Competition

England have participated in a comparable number of Test matches to the Kangaroos since the last World Cup in 2022.

However the coach believes that the strength of the Australian league - and quality of the domestic rivalry matches between NSW and QLD - offer a much better foundation for performing at the top of the international game than what is available in the Europe.

The England coach commented that the hectic Super League calendar allowed little opportunity for him to work with his team during the campaign, which will only pose further questions around how the national team can bridge the gap to the Kangaroos before travelling to Oceania in the next World Cup.

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

"We have ten to fifteen a year. We need highly competitive games to improve the domestic league and improve our prospects of succeeding in these sorts of games.

"It was impossible to even train with the squad. We never trained together in the season and despite having the total cooperation of everyone in Super League.

"I understand in the position of the head coaches that need to win games. The competition is that congested. It's a pity but that's not the cause we lost today."