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

Australia's 14-4 victory at the Merseyside venue on the weekend gave them a commanding series edge, making next week's final match in Leeds a academic contest.

The national squad had entered the series dreaming of sending the Kangaroos to their maiden Ashes setback since over five decades ago.

Over the last 24 months, they had achieved a dominant victory over Tonga and a success over the Samoan team. But as the historic rivalry resumed after a two-decade hiatus, the English were failed to make the leap against the reigning title holders.

"We're not making excuses. There were enough training periods to perform correctly on the pitch, and it's clear we've achieved that," the captain commented.

"Credit to Australia. They were strong in defense. But there's a lot to improve. It seems not as strong as we expected we were going into this series.

"So it's a necessary lesson for us, and [there is] loads to improve on."

The Kangaroos 'Turn Up and Are Ruthless'

Having been soundly beaten in an error-strewn display at the national stadium, England's were markedly enhanced on Saturday back in the traditional strongholds of northern England.

In an inspiring opening period, England caused turnovers from the Kangaroos and had dominant territory and possession, but unfortunately did not capitalize on the points tally.

Notably, the English team have now scored just a single touchdown over two full matches, with St Helens hooker the forward barging over late on in the defeat in London.

In contrast, Australia have accumulated six so far - and when errors began to affect the hosts' play just after the interval, it was a case of certainty, they were going to be heavily penalized.

First the playmaker scored, and then so too did the forward. From being tied at four-all, the home side were 10 points adrift.

"Proud for the bulk of the game. In my view for most of the match we were good," said the coach.

"The lapse for 10 minutes after the break damaged us immensely. Munster's try was soft and should never happen in a Test match.

"We're heartbroken. So proud the squad had a dig but very frustrated with that second-half lapse, which hurt us dearly."

While the next World Cup in Oceania is just under next year, England's short-term goal will be on attempting to regain respect, avoiding a series whitewash and eradicating the mistakes that annoyed the coach.

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

"We managed this week. The issue is a lack of precision in our offense where we could have put them under greater stress. It's essential to stop each of [tries] better.

"Fair play to Australia - that is no slight to them. They perform and are clinical when they seize opportunities, and we weren't, but in defense we can and should do better.

"They will be determined to win all three Tests and we need to be obsessed to make it a competitive series. I've told that to the players. This must become our obsession. It will be a challenging week but whoever strives for it the greatest will emerge victorious next week."

Competitive Edge Needs to Increase in Domestic Competition

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

However the coach argues that the quality of the Australian league - and level of the domestic rivalry matches between New South Wales and Queensland - offer a much better foundation for competing at the top of the international game than what is available in the Europe.

The England coach commented that the packed Super League fixture schedule left no time for him to coach his team during the campaign, which will only pose additional concerns around how the national team can narrow the difference to Australia before heading to the Southern Hemisphere in 2026.

"The Australians play a lot of internationals in their competition," he stated.

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

"It was impossible to even practice with the squad. We never got on the field in the season and despite having the complete support of everyone in Super League.

"I have also been in the position of the club managers that need to win games. The competition is that tight. It's a pity but that's not the cause we lost today."