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In the words of captain the England captain, the national team were delivered a stark "sobering lesson" as the Kangaroos secured the Rugby League Ashes.

The Kangaroos' 14-4 triumph at the Merseyside venue on the weekend gave them a commanding series edge, making next week's Headingley encounter a meaningless fixture.

The national squad had entered the series holding aspirations of inflicting the Kangaroos to their first Ashes series defeat since over five decades ago.

Over the last 24 months, they had enjoyed a 3-0 series win over Tonga and a success over Samoa. But as the Rugby League Ashes returned after a long break, England were failed to advance further against the reigning title holders.

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

"Australia deserve praise. They proved excellent in defense. But we've got loads to address. We're probably not as good as we thought we were going into this series.

"So it's a necessary wake-up call for us, and we have plenty to enhance."

Australia 'Show Up and Are Ruthless'

Having been heavily outplayed in an mistake-ridden performance at the national stadium, England's were much improved on Saturday back in the core regions of England's north.

In a rousing initial stages, England caused turnovers from the Australians and had all the field position and possession, but unfortunately did not capitalize on the points tally.

Tellingly, the English team have now scored just a single touchdown over 160 minutes, with St Helens hooker Daryl Clark scoring late on in the setback in London.

On the other hand, Australia have accumulated half a dozen across the series - and when blunders began to appear in the England's play just after the interval, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be made to pay.

Initially Cameron Munster scored, and then so too did the forward. From being level at four-all, the home side were 10 points adrift.

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

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

"The team is deeply disappointed. So proud the players had a fight but very frustrated with that second-half lapse, which proved costly significantly."

Although the upcoming global tournament in the Southern Hemisphere is just under 12 months away, the team's primary concern will be on trying to restore some pride, avoiding a clean sweep and addressing the mistakes that frustrated Wane.

"I hoped to see more thrown at the opposition. My aim was us to build pressure in the game - we didn't do that last week," added the veteran coach.

"We did this week. It's just a minor refinements in our offense where we could have put them under increased strain. It's essential to defend both [tries] more effectively.

"Fair play to Australia - that is no detriment to them. They arrive and are ruthless 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 equally determined to make it 2-1. I've told that to the squad. It has to be our primary goal. It's going to be a challenging week but the side that strives for it the greatest will emerge victorious next week."

Competitive Edge Must to Increase in Domestic Competition

England have participated in a comparable number of international fixtures to Australia since the last World Cup in recent years.

Yet Wane thinks that the quality of the NRL - and level of the State of Origin matches between NSW and Queensland - offer a much better preparation for performing at the highest level of the global stage than what is available in the Europe.

Wane commented that the congested domestic league calendar allowed little opportunity for him to work with his squad during the season, which will only raise additional concerns around how England can bridge the gap to the Kangaroos before travelling to the Southern Hemisphere in 2026.

"They play a lot of internationals in their competition," Wane remarked.

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

"It was impossible to even practice with the players. There was no chance to trained together in the season and I had the total cooperation of all clubs in the domestic competition.

"I have also been in the position of the club managers that must to win games. The league is that packed. It's unfortunate but that's not the reason we got beaten today."