England captain George Williams has admitted the national side are ‘not as good as they thought they were’ going into this autumn’s Ashes as they stare down the barrel of a series whitewash.
Shaun Wane’s side were beaten 14-4 at Everton on Saturday afternoon which means they are now just one defeat away from being beaten 3-0 by Australia.
There were significant improvements from the hosts in the second Test, but a distinct lack of attacking quality when it mattered most in Liverpool
And Williams admitted that he couldn’t defend the hosts’ play with ball in hand, insisting they ‘weren’t very clinical’.
He told the BBC: “I don’t think we started the second half well at all, the same as last week and then Australia scored two quick tries, and that’s pretty much the game.
“Then we’re chasing points, we’re very lateral, and our attack wasn’t very clinical at all, so I’m really disappointed. We’ve shown improvements in the first half, but not good enough at this level.”
However, what was more telling was Williams admitting England are not improving on the whole, and that they have suffered a reality check ahead of next year’s World Cup.
He added: “We’ve obviously spoken a lot about how we’ve improved and how we’re getting better, and we’re probably not seeing that. We’ve probably seen it for forty minutes, but we’re not seeing a full performance. That’s what we’ll be chasing.
“We’ve had enough sessions to get it working out on the field, and I don’t think we’ve quite done that.
“We’ve got loads to work on and we’re probably not as good as we thought we were heading into this series. It’s a good reality check for us and there’s loads to improve on.”
The hosts head to Headingley next weekend knowing that they must win to avoid a straight sets whitewash.
