Australia legends Paul Gallen and Cameron Smith are the latest to take aim at England following their underwhelming performance at Wembley in Saturday’s Ashes opener: with Gallen dubbing the hosts ‘horrible’.

Shaun Wane’s side limped to a miserable 26-6 defeat against the Kangaroos in London, leaving them in must-win territory already going into Saturday’s second Test at Everton.

And the criticism about their performance has intensified in the days since defeat, with Gallen and Smith the next to comment.

Former Kangaroos prop Gallen insisted he was shocked by how bad England were – before revealing that he now believes the gap between Super League and the NRL is getting bigger, not narrower

“England are going to have to get a whole lot better,” Gallen said on Channel Nine.

“I didn’t think Australia were great.. it was a very scrappy game, but England were horrible. One thing about the English side, they are always physical, they are always tough, particularly in the middle of the field and I thought they really lacked that.

“I didn’t think they were physical at all. Their edge defence, forever and a day, even back when we played, was horrible and it was again last night. Angus Crichton carved up, the edges carved up. I thought I really saw last night the difference between the Super League and NRL.

“I don’t think they’re gaining on us at all, I think we’re getting further away from them.”

Gallen continued: “I think we’ll win the series comfortably. I reckon we could pick two or three Australian sides and go over there and still beat the Poms. They really struggled last night.”

Smith also admitted he was stunned by how limited England looked in attack – before joining the growing number of experts calling for AJ Brimson to be given a Test debut this weekend – insisting the Gold Coast star could realistically play in a number of positions.

“Fullback or halves, their halves weren’t much better either, they didn’t offer too much in attack, they came up with a few good opportunities but failed to capitalise,” he said.

“It took them 75 minutes to score points against this Australian outfit, they were a little bit off their game, they were scrappy.”