'We're devastated' - Shaun Wane delivers verdict on England loss as Australia win Ashes series
England coach Shaun Wane said they were left devastated by their 14-4 defeat to Australia that handed the Kangaroos an Ashes series with a game to spare.
England were strong in the first half at Hill Dickinson Stadium but were unable to score a try and went into half-time level at 4-4 after two penalty goals each from Australia’s Nathan Cleary and England’s Harry Smith.
And the Kangaroos crossed twice in the second half through Cameron Munster and Hudson Young, which secured the series ahead of the third and final Test at AMT Headingley next Saturday.
"(I was) proud for he majority of the game,” said Wane. “I thought for 70 minutes we were good. I thought the switch off 10 minutes after half-time hurt us immensely.
"Munster’s first try was soft and shouldn’t have been scored in a Test match, but we did a lot of good things today, but not enough.
"Somebody else said that to me (that the performance was an improvement on last week’s 22-6 defeat at Wembley), but it’s very hard for me to think that way at the minute. They’ve won it and we’ve not, and it hurts.
"People will probably think we’ve improved, but my overriding feeling is that we got beat and it’s so disappointing.
"We’re devastated. It hurts that one. The players had a dig, but it was so disappointing with that after half-time, which cost us dearly, but we’re just really hurt at the moment."
Meanwhile, Australia boss Kevin Walters praised his side’s impressive defence, having limited England to just one try over the last two Tests.
"We were expecting a tough series and got that,” said Walters. “Last week went under the radar, how tough the game was.
"We were slower today and could've been better in attack, but defence wins the game, and that was the case today.
“There were some moments there where they were on top. Whoever scored first was going to be important, so Munster pulled a play, I don't know where he gets it from.
“Today was an old-style Test match. A lot of guys haven't experienced that, but now they have, so next week could be similar.”