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In the words of skipper George Williams, the national team were delivered a harsh "reality check" as Australia clinched the prestigious series.

Australia's decisive 14-4 win at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday gave them a commanding series edge, making next week's sold-out third Test a dead rubber.

Shaun Wane's side had entered the series holding aspirations of inflicting the Kangaroos to their maiden Ashes setback since the 1970s.

Over the last 24 months, they had achieved a clean sweep over the Tongan side and a 2-0 triumph over the Samoan team. But as the Rugby League Ashes returned after a two-decade hiatus, the English were unable to make the leap against the world champions.

"We take full responsibility. We've had enough training periods to get it right on the field, and I don't think we've quite done that," the captain told.

"Full marks to the Kangaroos. They were excellent defensively. But we've got loads to address. We're probably not as prepared as we expected we were going into this series.

"This serves as a good lesson for us, and there is much to enhance."

Australia 'Arrive and Are Merciless'

Having been comprehensively defeated in an sloppy showing at Wembley, England's were markedly enhanced on the weekend back in the traditional strongholds of northern England.

During an energetic opening period, the home side forced mistakes from the Kangaroos and had all the field position and possession, but crucially did not make it count on the scoreboard.

Significantly, England have now managed just one try over two full matches, with St Helens hooker Daryl Clark scoring late on in the defeat in London.

In contrast, Australia have racked up half a dozen across the series - and when blunders began to appear in the hosts' play just after the interval, it was a case of certainty, they were going to be made to pay.

First the playmaker scored, and then so too did the forward. 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 the break cost us greatly. The first try was soft and should not be scored in a top-level game.

"The team is deeply disappointed. Extremely pleased the squad had a dig but very frustrated with that after half-time, which cost us heavily."

Although the next World Cup in Oceania is just under 12 months away, England's primary concern will be on trying to regain respect, preventing a 3-0 sweep and addressing the mistakes that irritated the coach.

"I wanted to see more thrown at Australia. I wanted us to build pressure in the game - we didn't do that last week," added the veteran coach.

"We did this week. The issue is a bit of detail in our offense where we could have applied under greater stress. We need to stop each of [tries] better.

"Credit to Australia - that is no detriment to them. They perform and are ruthless when they get a chance, and we failed to be, but in defense we can and should do improve.

"The Australians will be focused to win all three Tests and we need to be obsessed to make it a competitive series. I've said that to the squad. It has to be our main aim. It will be a challenging week but the side that strives for it the greatest will secure victory next week."

Competitive Edge Must to Improve in Domestic Competition

England have played a similar number of international fixtures to Australia since the previous global tournament in recent years.

Yet Wane believes that the strength of the Australian league - and quality of the State of Origin matches between NSW and QLD - provide a much better grounding for competing at the top of the international game than what is available in the northern hemisphere.

Wane noted that the congested Super League fixture schedule left no time for him to coach his squad during the campaign, which will only pose further questions around how the national team can narrow the difference to the Kangaroos before heading to Oceania in the next World Cup.

"They participate in a large number of internationals in their competition," he remarked.

"England play 10-15 a year. We need highly competitive games to enhance the competition and improve our prospects of winning these types of matches.

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

"I understand in the boots of the head coaches that need to win games. The league is that packed. It's a pity but that's not the reason we were defeated today."