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As stated by leader the England captain, the national team were handed a brutal "wake-up call" as the Kangaroos clinched the Rugby League Ashes.

The Kangaroos' decisive 14-4 win at the stadium in Liverpool on the weekend gave them a 2-0 series lead, making the upcoming final match in Leeds a academic contest.

The national squad had come into the series holding aspirations of sending the Kangaroos to their maiden Ashes setback since 1970.

Over the last 24 months, they had achieved a dominant victory over Tonga and a series win over the Samoan team. But as the historic rivalry resumed after a long break, England were unable to make the leap against the top-ranked team.

"We take full responsibility. We've had enough training periods to get it right on the pitch, and it's clear we've achieved that," the captain stated.

"Full marks to the Kangaroos. They proved good in defense. But we've got plenty to work on. It seems not as prepared as we expected we were entering this series.

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

Australia 'Show Up and Are 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 a rousing opening period, the home side elicited errors from the Australians and had all the field position and ball control, but importantly did not capitalize on the points tally.

Notably, England have now scored just one score over 160 minutes, with St Helens hooker Daryl Clark barging over late on in the defeat in London.

In contrast, the Kangaroos have racked up six across the series - and when errors began to appear in the hosts' play just after the half-time, it was a case of certainty, they were going to be heavily penalized.

First the playmaker crossed, and then so too did the forward. From being tied at 4-4, the home side were trailing by 10.

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

"The drop in intensity for a brief period after half-time hurt us immensely. The first try was avoidable and should not be scored in a top-level game.

"The team is heartbroken. Extremely pleased the squad had a dig but very frustrated with that after half-time, which proved costly significantly."

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 attempting to salvage honor, preventing a clean sweep and eliminating the mistakes that irritated the coach.

"I wanted to see more thrown at the opposition. 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. It's just a lack of precision in our attack where we could have put them under increased strain. We need to defend both [tries] better.

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

"They will be obsessed to win all three Tests and we need to be obsessed to make it 2-1. I've told that to the players. It has to be our primary goal. It will be a challenging week but the side that desires it the most will emerge victorious next week."

Intensity Needs to Increase in Super League

The English side have played a comparable number of international fixtures to the Kangaroos since the previous global tournament in recent years.

However the coach argues that the strength of the NRL - and level of the domestic rivalry matches between NSW and Queensland - offer a more effective foundation for competing at the top of the international game than what is on offer in the northern hemisphere.

The England coach added that the hectic domestic league fixture list left little opportunity for him to work with his players during the season, which will only pose additional concerns around how England can close the divide to the Kangaroos before heading to the Southern Hemisphere in the next World Cup.

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

"We have ten to fifteen a year. We need really intense games to improve the competition and increase our chances 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 total cooperation of everyone in Super League.

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