The Kangaroos Defeat England to Keep the Rugby League Ashes
As stated by skipper George Williams, England were delivered a stark "wake-up call" as Australia secured the coveted Ashes trophy.
Australia's 14-4 victory at the stadium in Liverpool on the weekend gave them a commanding series edge, making the upcoming sold-out third Test a meaningless fixture.
The national squad had entered the series holding aspirations of inflicting the Kangaroos to their initial series loss since the 1970s.
Recently, they had achieved a 3-0 series win over the Tongan side and a series win over the Samoan team. But as the Rugby League Ashes resumed after a long break, England were unable to take the next step against the world champions.
"We take full responsibility. We've had enough training periods to get it right on the pitch, and I don't think we've managed that," the captain stated.
"Australia deserve praise. They proved good defensively. But there's plenty to address. We're probably not as good as we believed we were entering this series.
"This serves as a valuable lesson for us, and [there is] loads to develop."
The Kangaroos 'Show Up and Prove Merciless'
Australia registered a pair of tries in a short burst during the closing segment of the recent encounter
Having been heavily outplayed in an mistake-ridden performance at Wembley, Wane side's were significantly better on Saturday back in the rugby league heartlands of the North.
In a rousing initial stages, England elicited errors from the Kangaroos and had dominant territory and possession, but importantly did not capitalize on the points tally.
Significantly, England have now scored just one try over the series so far, with player the forward barging over late on in the defeat in London.
Conversely, the Kangaroos have scored six in two games - and when errors began to appear in the England's play just after the break, it was a case of when, not if, 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.
"Satisfied for the majority of the game. In my view for most of the match we were solid," said the coach.
"The lapse for 10 minutes after the break damaged us immensely. Munster's try was easy and should never happen in a Test match.
"The team is heartbroken. Extremely pleased the squad had a dig but very frustrated with that second-half lapse, which proved costly dearly."
Although the next World Cup in Australia and Papua New Guinea is just under a year from now, England's short-term goal will be on trying to regain respect, avoiding a clean sweep and addressing the mistakes that annoyed Wane.
"I hoped to see more thrown at Australia. My aim was us to maintain momentum in the game - we didn't do that last week," added the veteran coach.
"We managed this week. The issue is a minor refinements in our attack where we could have applied under more pressure. It's essential to stop each of [tries] better.
"Credit to Australia - that is no slight to them. They perform and are ruthless when they get a chance, and we weren't, but in defense we can and should do better.
"They will be focused to win the series whitewash and we need to be equally determined to make it a respectable scoreline. I've said that to the squad. It has to be our primary goal. It's going to be a challenging week but whoever desires it the most will get the win next week."
Intensity Must to Improve in Super League
The English side have played a comparable number of international fixtures to Australia since the previous global tournament in recent years.
Yet Wane believes that the caliber of the Australian league - and standard of the State of Origin matches between NSW and Queensland - provide a superior preparation for competing at the top of the international game than what is available in the Europe.
The England coach added that the congested Super League fixture list allowed little opportunity for him to train his squad during the campaign, which will only pose more issues around how the national team can bridge the gap to the Kangaroos before travelling to Oceania in 2026.
"The Australians participate in a large number of internationals in their league," he added.
"We have ten to fifteen a year. It's crucial highly competitive games to boost the competition and increase our prospects of succeeding in these high-stakes fixtures.
"It was impossible to even practice with the squad. There was no chance to trained together in the campaign and despite having the full backing of all clubs in the domestic competition.
"I understand in the position of the club managers that need to win games. The league is that congested. It's unfortunate but it's not the cause we were defeated today."
