Herbie Farnworth has warned Samoa that England will fire into them even harder than they did against Papua New Guinea.
The Brisbane Broncos centre continued his excellent tournament with another classy display in the 54-4 rout of the Kumuls. They face Samoa in Saturday’s semi-final - four weeks after thrashing the same opponents 60-6 in the group stages. But Samoa have improved vastly since then, illustrated by yesterday’s shock 20-18 quarter-final win over Tonga.
Farnworth said: “Either way - Tonga or Samoa - we knew it’d be a tough game. But for us, our job doesn’t change. We just have to focus on ourselves. We’ll come out firing just like we did against PNG. We’ll make it a real fast, tough game. And us English fellas will back ourselves. We know we can get better. We’re just looking forward to playing a World Cup semi-final for England.”
St Helens star Tommy Makinson feels the same. The winger set a new England record with five tries against the Papuans. He said: “It’s nice to get the individual bits but to be involved in this group is a dream.
“To score five tries is good but to be involved in this group and go ahead with what we want to achieve is much bigger. It’s a day I’ll always remember but there are plenty more to be made.”
Until making his England bow against Fiji last month, Farnworth had not played since injuring his bicep with Brisbane in June. He made his full debut in the opening group rout of Samoa, scoring one try, and backed up in the win over France but was rested for the final group game against Greece.
He said: "I want to play every game but I feel I needed that rest. I hadn’t played for a long, long time. I’d come back from a bicep injury and hadn’t played for about five months so it’d be a lot to ask to play four or five games on the trot. So when Waney thought it was best to rest me it was 100 per cent right. I just want to play every game from here on out."
And given his excellent form, he is now nailed on in Wane's starting line-up, some turnaround after seeing his hopes up in the air with that mid-season injury.
Farnworth said: "I didn’t think I was finished. It was always a goal of mine to play in this World Cup. I aimed for the finals but sadly Broncos dropped out of those. It was a good thing that the World Cup got put back a year. It was something to aim for and I wasn’t going to miss this for anything."
Meanwhile, Wane revealed after yesterday's game he’d signed a contract extension until the end of 2023.
