Another Ashes series loss: Only thing alive in this dead rubber is post-mortem

Following England's Ashes series loss to Australia, Sky Sports Rugby League's Brian Carney dissects just how Shaun Wane's side have ended up in this position...

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results", said Winston Churchill.

And so, the 2025 Rugby League Ashes are done. Finished. File it under 'Australia 2 - England 0 (job complete)'.

• Shaun Wane calls for 'more Test match level games' in England
• England vs Australia, second Test: As it happened!
• Rugby League Ashes 2025: All you need to know
• Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW

The third and final Test at Headingley now arrives with the risk of having all the peril and intensity of a Saturday afternoon friendly.

England's campaign has been defined not by bad luck, not by brave defeats, but by a couple of damp squibs that leave more questions than answers.

You can talk about effort, heart, and "building towards something" but eventually you must score tries. And across 160 minutes of Ashes rugby league, England have produced precisely one: a Daryl Clark barge-over from dummy half at Wembley when the outcome was already decided.

The first Test was deflating and that's being kind: an Australian team that were, by their own admission, scratchy, self-critical, and nowhere near their best, still coasted to victory. England were out-thought and out-played by a side that barely broke sweat.

Game Two brought a little more sting - a touch more 'physicality', as the coaches like to call it, but let's be honest, the improvement was measured against a very low bar. Australia had arguably regressed from their Wembley level.

England huffed, puffed, and bashed, but the craft, the deception, the subtlety that turns pressure into points were nowhere to be seen. You can't bludgeon the Kangaroos into submission. You have to outthink them. England, instead, looked like they were still trying to solve a problem from a different era.

In conversation with the Immortal Andrew Johns after the second Test he commended the physicality challenge put forward by some of the English players but noted that is a bare minimum requirement of Test rugby league. He said the hosts attack was laboured, lateral instead of direct and a poor imitation of anything one would hope to threaten Australia with.

Meanwhile, Australia have done what they came to do. The Ashes are safely back in their hands, and the evidence suggests they know it. Having spent two days partying from Liverpool to the Highlands of Scotland, the green and golds have quite literally taken the scenic route to the dead rubber.

"They'll be obsessed to win 3-0," Wane said. Obsessed? Really?

After a long NRL season, and a journey halfway round the world to support the English game, few would blame the Australians for being more obsessed with bagpipes and a decent pint. England's defeat deprives the sport of its much needed "winner take all" finale in Leeds, just as it did when they lost the World Cup semi-final a few years ago.

England will be determined to win their first game against Australia since 1995. The Australians will reward their squad players for being here, blood some new faces, and play with the carefree energy of a side whose work is already done.

There really can be no excuse for England under performance this time.

Rugby League Commercial managing director Rhodri Jones revealed that Headingley was chosen to help Wane and end the series on a high. The hope being that an "old school" rugby league ground would give him the upper hand to win the series.

But instead, the crowd head to Headingley for a contest that has little consequence.

The clue, as the old saying goes, is in the name: dead rubber.

Rugby League Ashes 2025

First Test: England 6-26 Australia

Second Test: England 4-14 Australia

Third Test: Saturday November 8, Headingley Stadium, Leeds