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According to leader the England captain, the national team were handed a brutal "reality check" as the Kangaroos secured the prestigious series.

Australia's 14-4 victory at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday gave them a unassailable 2-0 advantage, making the upcoming Headingley encounter a meaningless fixture.

The national squad had entered the series harbouring hopes of inflicting Australia to their first Ashes series defeat since 1970.

Over the last 24 months, they had secured a clean sweep over Tonga and a series win over Samoa. But as the prestigious competition returned after a long break, England were unable to advance further against the reigning title holders.

"We take full responsibility. We've had enough preparations to perform correctly on the pitch, and it's clear we've achieved that," Williams stated.

"Credit to Australia. They were excellent in defense. But there's plenty to improve. We're probably not as good as we expected we were going into this series.

"This serves as a valuable wake-up call for us, and [there is] loads to develop."

The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Prove Ruthless'

After being soundly beaten in an error-strewn display at the national stadium, Wane side's were markedly enhanced on the weekend back in the core regions of the North.

During an energetic first half, England forced mistakes from the Kangaroos and had superior positioning and ball control, but importantly did not make it count on the points tally.

Tellingly, the English team have now managed just one score over the series so far, with player the forward barging over late on in the loss in the capital.

In contrast, Australia have accumulated half a dozen so far - and when errors began to affect the England's play just after the interval, it was a case of when, not if, they were going to be heavily penalized.

First the playmaker went over, and then so too did the forward. From being tied at four-all, England were trailing by 10.

"Satisfied for the bulk of the game. I thought for most of the match we were competitive," said Wane.

"The drop in intensity for a brief period after the break hurt us severely. The first try was avoidable and should never happen in a international fixture.

"We're heartbroken. Extremely pleased the players had a dig but very frustrated with that after half-time, which hurt us dearly."

While the next World Cup in Oceania is just under a year from now, England's primary concern will be on trying to salvage honor, avoiding a clean sweep and eliminating the errors that frustrated Wane.

"I wanted to see additional intensity thrown at Australia. My aim was us to build pressure in the game - we failed to deliver last week," added the 61-year-old.

"We managed this week. It's just a bit of detail in our offensive play where we could have put them under more pressure. We need to stop each of [tries] with greater resolve.

"Credit to Australia - that is not a criticism to them. They arrive and are ruthless when they capitalize, and we weren't, but in defense we must do better.

"The Australians will be determined to win the series whitewash and we need to be just as focused to make it a respectable scoreline. I've said that to the players. This must become our obsession. It will be a challenging week but whoever wants it the greatest will get the win next week."

Intensity Must to Increase in Super League

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

However Wane thinks that the quality of the Australian league - and standard of the domestic rivalry matches between NSW and QLD - offer a more effective grounding for performing at the top of the global stage than what is on offer in the northern hemisphere.

Wane added that the congested Super League fixture list left no time for him to train his players during the season, which will only raise more issues around how England can narrow the difference to the Kangaroos before travelling to the Southern Hemisphere in the next World Cup.

"They play a lot of internationals in their league," Wane stated.

"We have ten to fifteen a year. We need demanding games to improve the competition and improve our chances of succeeding in these high-stakes fixtures.

"I couldn't even train with the squad. There was no chance to trained together in the campaign and despite having the total cooperation of everyone in the domestic competition.

"I have also been in the position of the head coaches that need to win games. The competition is that tight. It's unfortunate but that's not the cause we were defeated today."