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As stated by captain George Williams, the national team were given a brutal "reality check" as the Kangaroos secured the prestigious series.

Australia's 14-4 victory at the Merseyside venue on Saturday gave them a commanding series edge, making next week's final match in Leeds a dead rubber.

The national squad had entered the series harbouring hopes of inflicting Australia to their initial series loss since 1970.

In the past two years, they had achieved a 3-0 series win over Tonga and a series win over the Samoan team. But as the historic rivalry returned after a two-decade hiatus, England were unable to advance further against the top-ranked team.

"We take full responsibility. We've had enough sessions to execute properly on the pitch, and I don't think we've quite done that," the captain stated.

"Australia deserve praise. They were excellent in defense. But we've got loads to work on. It seems not as strong as we believed we were going into this series.

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

Australia 'Show Up and Prove Clinical'

Having been heavily outplayed in an error-strewn display at the national stadium, Wane side's were much improved on Saturday back in the core regions of northern England.

In a rousing first half, England elicited errors from the Australians and had all the field position and possession, but importantly did not convert opportunities on the scoreboard.

Tellingly, England have now managed just one try over the series so far, with player Daryl Clark barging over late on in the loss in London.

In contrast, the Kangaroos have accumulated six in two games - and when blunders began to affect the hosts' play just after the half-time, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be heavily penalized.

Initially the playmaker crossed, and then so too did Hudson Young. From being tied at 4-4, the home side were 10 points adrift.

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

"The lapse for a brief period after half-time cost us severely. Munster's try was easy and should not be scored in a international fixture.

"The team is devastated. Extremely pleased the squad had a dig but very frustrated with that post-interval, which hurt us significantly."

Although the next World Cup in Oceania is just under 12 months away, England's immediate focus will be on trying to restore some pride, preventing a series whitewash and eradicating the mistakes that annoyed Wane.

"I hoped to see additional intensity thrown at the opposition. I wanted us to maintain momentum in the game - we failed to deliver last week," added the 61-year-old.

"We managed this week. It's just a lack of precision in our offensive play where we could have applied under greater stress. We need to stop each of [tries] with greater resolve.

"Fair play to the Kangaroos - that is no slight to them. They turn up and are merciless when they capitalize, and we weren't, but in defense we can and should do improve.

"The Australians will be obsessed to win all three Tests and we need to be just as focused to make it a competitive series. I've said that to the players. It has to be our primary goal. It's going to be a difficult week but the side that desires it the greatest will emerge victorious next week."

Intensity Needs to Increase in Super League

The English side have played a comparable number of Test matches to the Kangaroos since the last World Cup in 2022.

Yet Wane thinks that the caliber of the Australian league - and level of the State of Origin matches between NSW and QLD - deliver a much better grounding for competing at the highest level of the international game than what is available in the UK.

The England coach added that the packed Super League fixture list allowed little opportunity for him to train his team during the campaign, which will only pose additional concerns around how the national team can narrow the difference to Australia before travelling to the Southern Hemisphere in the next World Cup.

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

"We have ten to fifteen a year. We need highly competitive games to boost the domestic league and boost our chances of winning these sorts of games.

"It was impossible to even train with the players. There was no chance to trained together in the campaign and I had the full backing of all clubs in the domestic competition.

"I understand in the boots of the club managers that must to win games. The league is that tight. It's unfortunate but that's not the cause we were defeated today."