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As stated by leader the England captain, the national team were given a brutal "sobering lesson" as the Kangaroos clinched the Rugby League Ashes.

Australia's 14-4 triumph at the stadium in Liverpool on Saturday gave them a 2-0 series lead, making the upcoming sold-out third Test a dead rubber.

The England team had entered the series dreaming of sending the Kangaroos to their first Ashes series defeat since 1970.

Recently, they had achieved a 3-0 series win over the Tongan side and a 2-0 triumph over the Samoan team. But as the prestigious competition returned after a long break, the English were unable to take the next step against the world champions.

"We take full responsibility. There were enough training periods to execute properly on the pitch, and I don't think we've managed that," Williams told.

"Australia deserve praise. They proved excellent defensively. But we've got a lot to address. We're probably not as prepared as we thought we were going into this series.

"This serves as a necessary reality check for us, and there is much to enhance."

The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Prove Clinical'

Having been comprehensively defeated in an sloppy showing at Wembley, Wane side's were markedly enhanced on the weekend back in the core regions of England's north.

During an energetic initial stages, England forced mistakes from the Australians and had dominant territory and possession, but importantly did not make it count on the scoreboard.

Tellingly, the English team have now scored just one try over the series so far, with St Helens hooker the forward barging over late on in the defeat in the capital.

On the other hand, the Kangaroos have scored six in two games - and when blunders began to creep into the England's play just after the interval, it was a case of when, not if, they were going to be made to pay.

First Cameron Munster scored, and then so too did the forward. From being level at four-all, the home side were trailing by 10.

"Proud for the bulk of the game. I thought for 70 minutes we were competitive," said Wane.

"The drop in intensity for 10 minutes after half-time hurt us severely. The first try was avoidable and should never happen in a international fixture.

"We're heartbroken. So proud the players had a go but so disappointed with that post-interval, which proved costly heavily."

Although the next World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere is just under a year from now, the team's short-term goal will be on trying to restore some pride, preventing a series whitewash and addressing the mistakes that annoyed the coach.

"I wanted to see more thrown at the opposition. My aim was us to maintain momentum in the game - we fell short last week," added the veteran coach.

"We managed this week. It's just a minor refinements in our attack where we could have applied under more pressure. It's essential to defend both [tries] better.

"Credit to Australia - that is no slight to them. They arrive and are ruthless when they capitalize, and we weren't, but in defense we can and should do enhance.

"They will be determined to win all three Tests and we need to be just as focused to make it a respectable scoreline. I've told that to the players. This must become our primary goal. It's going to be a challenging week but whoever wants it the most will emerge victorious next week."

Intensity Must to Elevate in Domestic Competition

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

Yet Wane argues that the strength of the Australian league - and standard of the State of Origin matches between New South Wales and Queensland - deliver a much better grounding for competing at the highest level of the international game than what is available in the Europe.

The England coach added that the packed Super League fixture list left no time for him to train his team during the campaign, which will only raise additional concerns around how England can narrow the difference to the Kangaroos before heading to the Southern Hemisphere in the next World Cup.

"The Australians participate in a large number of Test matches in their competition," he stated.

"England have ten to fifteen a year. It's crucial really intense games to boost the domestic league and improve our prospects of succeeding in these high-stakes fixtures.

"I couldn't even practice with the squad. We never trained together in the season and despite having the total cooperation of all clubs in Super League.

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