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According to skipper the England captain, the national team were delivered a stark "sobering lesson" as the Kangaroos won the prestigious series.

Australia's decisive 14-4 win at the Merseyside venue on Saturday gave them a unassailable 2-0 advantage, making next week's sold-out third Test a meaningless fixture.

Shaun Wane's side had come into the series dreaming of sending the Kangaroos to their initial series loss since the 1970s.

In the past two years, they had secured a 3-0 series win over Tonga and a series win over the Samoan team. But as the historic rivalry resumed after a long break, the English were failed to take the next step against the reigning title holders.

"We take full responsibility. We've had enough sessions to perform correctly on the field, and I don't think we've achieved that," the captain told.

"Australia deserve praise. They proved excellent defensively. But there's plenty to address. It seems not as strong as we expected we were entering this series.

"So it's a good reality check for us, and we have plenty to enhance."

The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Prove Ruthless'

Having been soundly beaten in an sloppy showing at Wembley, England's were much improved on Saturday back in the core regions of England's north.

In an inspiring opening period, England forced mistakes from the Kangaroos and had all the field position and ball control, but unfortunately did not capitalize on the scoreboard.

Significantly, the English team have now managed just a single touchdown over two full matches, with player the forward barging over late on in the setback in London.

Conversely, the Kangaroos have scored half a dozen in two games - and when mistakes began to affect the hosts' play just after the break, it was a case of certainty, they were going to be heavily penalized.

First Cameron Munster went over, and then so too did the forward. From being level at 4-4, the home side were 10 points adrift.

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

"The lapse for 10 minutes after half-time damaged us severely. Munster's try was soft and should not be scored in a international fixture.

"The team is deeply disappointed. Extremely pleased the squad had a go but very frustrated with that post-interval, which hurt us heavily."

While the upcoming global tournament in the Southern Hemisphere is just under 12 months away, the team's immediate focus will be on trying to restore some pride, preventing a series whitewash and eradicating the mistakes that frustrated the coach.

"I wanted to see greater effort thrown at Australia. I wanted us to apply sustained attack in the game - we fell short last week," added the veteran coach.

"We did this week. The issue is a minor refinements in our offense where we could have applied under greater stress. It's essential to defend both [tries] better.

"Fair play to Australia - that is no slight to them. They turn up and are clinical when they get a chance, and we weren't, but in defense we can and should do improve.

"They will be obsessed to win all three Tests and we need to be just as focused to make it a competitive series. I've said that to the squad. It has to be our main aim. It will be a difficult week but whoever desires it the most will get the win next week."

Intensity Must to Improve in Super League

England have played a similar number of Test matches to Australia since the previous global tournament in 2022.

Yet Wane thinks that the caliber of the Australian league - and standard of the State of Origin matches between New South Wales and QLD - offer a much better preparation for competing at the highest level of the international game than what is available in the northern hemisphere.

Wane noted that the congested domestic league fixture list allowed little opportunity for him to train his squad during the campaign, which will only pose more issues around how England can bridge the gap to the Kangaroos before heading to Oceania in the next World Cup.

"The Australians play a large number of internationals in their competition," he remarked.

"We have 10-15 a year. We need highly competitive games to improve the domestic league and increase our chances of winning these types of matches.

"It was impossible to even practice with the players. We never got on the field in the campaign and I had the total cooperation of all clubs in Super League.

"I have also been in the position of the club managers that must to win games. The competition is that packed. It's a pity but that's not the reason we were defeated today."