GREAT Britain coach David Waite pulled few punches after seeing his side lose the second 'Think! Road Safety' Test - and the Ashes - to Australia in another epic battle on Saturday.

And he became the latest Brit coach in various sports to blame their teams' failures, at least partly, on a losing culture in this country.

This three-match series was deemed to be the Lions' best chance in years of winning the Ashes on home soil for the first time since 1959, Australia having been hit by injuries.

Those hopes were far from banished last weekend when a 12-man Britain ran the tourists close - Adrian Morley having been sent off after 12 seconds- and there was real optimism at Hull's packed-out KC Stadium that the series would be levelled.

But despite looking good value for a 20-8 lead after 25 minutes, they lost 23-20 to another late Aussie surge, and, although the matches have provided great drama, yet again for British rugby league it was a case of if only.

Okay, it would be unfair to ignore this Aussie side's achievement. They became the first Kangaroos since 1986 to win the first two Tests of an Ashes series and did so despite the injuries and criticism back home.

But Waite's description of 'methodical' suited them pretty well. He was harsher towards his own players.

"We blew it," he said over and over again in the press conference. "We came here to win and we blew it. They aimed for us to shoot ourselves in the foot and we did."

Waite, himself an Aussie, refused to criticise Australian referee Tim Mander, whose performance added to the argument for neutral officials - the penalty count was 8-2 in the Kangaroos' favour - and concentrated on his own players.

"We don't blame things. He didn't drop the ball for us," he said.

"They (Australia) will always come back at you - they've been doing it for 44 years.

"We weren't ruthless enough. You need to learn the lesson in this country about how to win."

An early Craig Fitzgibbon penalty was wiped out as Morley flicked up an outrageous pass for Terry Newton to touch down.

Morley - red-carded last week after a wildly high shot in the first tackle of the game - was later put on report for another high tackle but will face no punishment.

Darren Lockyer replied for Australia with a converted try, but Kris Radlinski won the race to Paul Deacon's hack to restore Britain's lead. Deacon, who goaled all of Britain's tries, added a penalty, and when Gary Connolly dummied and scored his first Lions try in 31 caps and 12 years, Britain looked in control.

But Fitzgibbon crossed just before half-time as the Aussies' possession game clicked into gear, and after the break they increased the intensity in defence, while Britain's one-man tactics and poor positional kicking, plus the Aussies' ability to force double-deals, kept the Lions pinned back.

The outstanding Brett Kimmorley dummied through and, after Fitzgibbon's boot had equalised, Kimmorley sent over a 75th-minute drop goal to edge his side ahead.

Many observers asked why Britain had not set up play for a drop themselves - but they rarely got far enough into opposition territory to do so.

Waite concurred: "A drop goal wasn't going to win us the game. Field position was and we didn't have it."

A bit of panic led to another penalty for Fitzgibbon to seal matters and Britain had to settle, yet again, for a gallant defeat.

At least it has dispelled the myth that international series are fixed to go to a decider, next week's Test at Huddersfield being purely academic.

Updated: 12:37 Monday, November 17, 2003