This video can not be played
Australia beat England to retain Ashes
According to captain George Williams, England received a stark “reality check” as Australia clinched the Rugby League Ashes series.
The Kangaroos secured a 14-4 victory at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday, establishing an insurmountable 2-0 series lead. This renders the sold-out third Test at AMT Headingley in Leeds next week a formality.
Shaun Wane’s squad entered the series with aspirations of inflicting Australia’s first Ashes series defeat since 1970.
In the preceding two years, they achieved a 3-0 series victory against Tonga and a 2-0 triumph over Samoa. However, as the Rugby League Ashes resumed after a 22-year hiatus, England faltered in their attempt to overcome the reigning world champions.
“We are not offering excuses. We have had sufficient preparation to execute effectively on the field, which I do not believe we have fully achieved,” Williams stated to BBC Sport.
“Credit to Australia. Their defense was strong. However, we have considerable areas for improvement. We may have overestimated our capabilities entering this series.”
“This serves as a valuable reality check for us, highlighting numerous aspects for enhancement.”
Australia scored two tries in a five-minute spell during the second half of the second Test
Australia edge England in pulsating Test to clinch Ashes
Pitch invader arrested after lining up with Australia team
Following a resounding defeat characterized by numerous errors at Wembley, Wane’s team demonstrated significant improvement on Saturday, returning to the rugby league heartland of northern England.
During an intense opening period, England pressured the Kangaroos into mistakes and dominated in both field position and possession. However, they crucially failed to convert this advantage into points on the scoreboard.
Notably, England has only managed to score a single try in over 160 minutes of play, with St Helens hooker Daryl Clark forcing his way over the line late in the loss in London.
In contrast, Australia has accumulated six tries across the two games. As errors began to infiltrate the hosts’ play shortly after the interval, it became inevitable that they would face severe consequences.
Cameron Munster scored the first try, followed by Hudson Young. From a level score of 4-4, England found themselves trailing by 10 points.
“I was proud for the majority of the game. I thought for 70 minutes we were good,” said Wane.
“The switch off for 10 minutes after half-time hurt us immensely. Munster’s first try was soft and should not be scored in a Test match.
“We’re devastated. So proud the players had a dig but so disappointed with that after half-time, which cost us dearly.”
While the next World Cup in Australia and Papua New Guinea is just under 12 months away, England’s immediate focus will be on trying to restore some pride, avoiding a series whitewash and eradicating the mistakes that irritated Wane.
“I wanted to see more thrown at Australia. I wanted us to build pressure in the game – we didn’t do that last week,” added the 61-year-old.
“We did this week. It’s just a bit of detail in our attack where we could have put them under more pressure. We need to defend both [tries] better.
“Fair play to Australia – that is no detriment to them. They turn up and are ruthless when they get a chance, and we weren’t, but defensively we can and should do better.
“They will be obsessed to win 3-0 and we need to be obsessed to make it 2-1. I’ve said that to the players. It has to be our obsession. It’s going to be a tough week but whoever wants it the most will get the win next week.”
England have played a similar number of Test matches to Australia since the last World Cup in 2022.
Yet Wane believes that the strength of the NRL – and quality of the State of Origin matches between New South Wales and Queensland – provide a much better grounding for competing at the top of the international game than what is on offer in the northern hemisphere.
Wane added that the congested Super League fixture schedule left no time for him to work with his squad during the season, which will only pose further questions around how England can bridge the gap to Australia before travelling to Oceania in 2026.
“They play a lot of Test matches in their competition,” Wane added.
“We play 10-15 a year. We need really intense games to improve the competition and improve our chances of winning these sorts of games.
“I couldn’t even train with the players. We never got on the field in the season and I had the full backing of everyone in Super League.
“I have also been in the boots of the head coaches that need to win games. The competition is that congested. It’s unfortunate but it’s not the reason we got beaten today.”
Comments can not be loaded
To load Comments you need to enable JavaScript in your browser