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According to skipper George Williams, the national team were delivered a harsh "wake-up call" as the Kangaroos secured the coveted Ashes trophy.

Australia's 14-4 triumph at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday gave them a 2-0 series lead, making the upcoming Headingley encounter a dead rubber.

The England team had come into the series holding aspirations of inflicting Australia to their maiden Ashes setback since the 1970s.

In the past two years, they had secured a 3-0 series win over Tonga and a success over the Samoan team. But as the Rugby League Ashes returned after a two-decade hiatus, England were unable to take the next step against the top-ranked team.

"No excuses from us. There were enough training periods to get it right on the pitch, and I don't think we've managed that," the captain commented.

"Australia deserve praise. They proved good in defense. But we've got a lot to improve. It seems not as good as we expected we were going into this series.

"This serves as a valuable reality check for us, and [there is] loads to improve on."

Australia 'Turn Up and Prove Ruthless'

After being soundly beaten in an error-strewn display at the national stadium, Wane side's were much improved on the weekend back in the core regions of northern England.

During an energetic initial stages, the home side forced mistakes from the Kangaroos and had superior positioning and ball control, but importantly did not make it count on the points tally.

Significantly, England have now managed just a single touchdown over the series so far, with player the forward barging over late on in the defeat in the capital.

Conversely, the Kangaroos have accumulated six across the series - and when blunders began to creep into the hosts' play just after the break, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be heavily penalized.

First Cameron Munster went over, and then so too did the forward. From being level at four-all, the home side were down by double digits.

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

"The lapse for a brief period after half-time damaged us greatly. The first try was soft and should never happen in a international fixture.

"The team is devastated. Extremely pleased the squad had a dig but so disappointed with that second-half lapse, which proved costly significantly."

Although the upcoming global tournament in Australia and Papua New Guinea is just under a year from now, England's short-term goal will be on trying to restore some pride, avoiding a 3-0 sweep and addressing the mistakes that frustrated Wane.

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

"We did this week. The issue is a minor refinements in our offense where we could have applied under more pressure. We need to stop each of [tries] with greater resolve.

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

"The Australians will be obsessed to win the series whitewash 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 challenging week but the side that wants it the most will get the win next week."

Intensity Needs to Elevate in Super League

England have played a comparable number of Test matches to the Kangaroos since the last World Cup in recent years.

Yet the coach thinks that the caliber of the NRL - and standard of the State of Origin matches between New South Wales and QLD - offer a much better preparation for competing at the top of the international game than what is available in the UK.

Wane commented that the congested domestic league fixture schedule allowed little opportunity for him to coach his squad during the season, which will only raise further questions around how England can narrow the difference to Australia before heading to the Southern Hemisphere in the next World Cup.

"The Australians participate in a lot of internationals in their competition," he remarked.

"We have ten to fifteen a year. It's crucial highly competitive games to improve the competition and increase our chances of winning these high-stakes fixtures.

"It was impossible to even practice with the squad. There was no chance to got on the field in the campaign and I had the total cooperation of all clubs in the domestic competition.

"I have also been in the shoes of the club managers that need to win games. The competition is that congested. It's a pity but that's not the reason we lost today."