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As stated by captain George Williams, England were delivered a harsh "reality check" as Australia secured the prestigious series.

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

The national squad had come into the series dreaming of inflicting the Kangaroos to their initial series loss since the 1970s.

Recently, they had enjoyed a clean sweep over the Tongan side and a 2-0 triumph over Samoa. But as the historic rivalry returned after a 22-year absence, England were failed to make the leap against the world champions.

"We're not making excuses. We've had enough sessions to get it right on the pitch, and it's clear we've managed that," Williams told.

"Australia deserve praise. They proved good in defense. But we've got a lot to improve. It seems not as strong as we expected we were going into this series.

"So it's a good wake-up call for us, and there is much to enhance."

Australia 'Turn Up and Prove Ruthless'

After being soundly beaten in an mistake-ridden performance at the national stadium, Wane side's were significantly better on the weekend back in the core regions of northern England.

In a rousing first half, the home side forced mistakes from the Australians and had superior positioning and ball control, but crucially did not make it count on the scoreboard.

Notably, England have now managed just one try over two full matches, with player the forward powering through late on in the setback in the capital.

In contrast, Australia have accumulated half a dozen in two games - and when blunders began to appear in the England's play just after the half-time, it was a case of inevitability, they were going to be made to pay.

Initially Cameron Munster scored, and then so too did Hudson Young. From being level at 4-4, the home side were 10 points adrift.

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

"The lapse for 10 minutes after half-time cost us greatly. The first try was easy and should never happen in a Test match.

"The team is heartbroken. Extremely pleased the squad had a go but very frustrated with that post-interval, which proved costly dearly."

Although the next World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere is just under 12 months away, England's short-term goal will be on attempting to salvage honor, preventing a clean sweep and eradicating the errors that irritated Wane.

"I wanted to see more directed toward the opposition. I wanted us to build pressure in the game - we failed to deliver last week," added the 61-year-old.

"We managed this week. The issue is a lack of precision in our attack where we could have put them under greater stress. We need to stop each of [tries] with greater resolve.

"Fair play to the Kangaroos - that is no detriment to them. They turn up and are merciless when they get a chance, and we failed to be, but defensively we can and should do improve.

"The Australians will be determined to win the series whitewash and we need to be equally determined to make it a competitive series. I've told that to the squad. It has to be our primary goal. It will be a tough week but whoever wants it the greatest will get the win next week."

Intensity Needs to Improve in Domestic Competition

England have played a comparable number of Test matches to Australia since the last World Cup in recent years.

However the coach argues that the quality of the Australian league - and quality of the State of Origin matches between New South Wales and Queensland - deliver a much better grounding for competing at the top of the global stage than what is on offer in the Europe.

Wane added that the congested Super League calendar left little opportunity for him to train his players during the season, which will only pose more issues around how the national team can narrow the difference to the Kangaroos before heading to Oceania in the next World Cup.

"The Australians participate in a lot of internationals in their competition," Wane stated.

"We have ten to fifteen a year. It's crucial highly competitive games to improve the competition and boost our prospects of winning these high-stakes fixtures.

"I couldn't even train with the players. There was no chance to got on the field in the campaign and despite having the complete support of all clubs in Super League.

"I have also been in the boots of the head coaches that need to win games. The league is that tight. It's unfortunate but that's not the reason we got beaten today."