ENGLAND captain George Williams led the tales of huge disappointment that a “better performance” had still not proved enough to topple Australia at Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool.

Williams, winning a 22nd cap for his country and the third most experienced international in England’s side, behind Kallum Watkins (30) and John Bateman (28), had to mute any 31st birthday celebrations for the previous day.

Intently focused on the Australian mountain to climb, the Warrington Wolves halfback, who spent almost two years down under at Canberra Raiders, reflected: “I’m really disappointed.

“I thought we gave a good account of ourselves in the first half.

“But like the week before they started slowly then scored two quick tries on us and that’s the game.

“We got stung and if you are a little bit off, that’s what happens.

“I’m proud of the performance but it was still not good enough. The series was on the line and we gave it our best shot.

“We had a plan from us which you saw in the first half – to kick into corners and try and make it uncomfortable for Australia. Then in the second half, we made two errors in our own half and they punished us.

“The game changed then as we were chasing it and our attack became a bit frantic.

“Credit to Australia as they defended really well. We didn’t break them down much, and that’s what we have to work on.

“Next week we now have to try and get some pride back as we don’t want to be embarrassed 3-0.

“We have improved but we still have more to do. We came here to save the series and haven’t done that.

“A lot of lads are very deflated as we didn’t execute the way we wanted to, but that’s something we can work on.”