Herbie Farnworth insists he is fit and ready for whatever the Australians can throw at him despite seeing his NRL season come to a premature end.
The centre made 19 appearances for the Dolphins this season, scoring 12 tries along the way, as the club just missed out on a spot in the play-offs.
However, his last appearance for the club came on August 1 with the England international missing the last five rounds of the NRL with the hamstring injury he picked up against New Zealand Warriors.
It means that Farnworth will be playing his first game in almost three months when he lines up for England against Australia next weekend at Wembley Stadium.
There was some concern about his Ashes availability when he initially picked up the hamstring issue, but the scan results allayed those fears. And, as he trains with England in preparation for the first Ashes Test on October 25, Farnworth has confirmed he is fully recovered and ready to pull on the white jersey.
“It’s fine now,” Farnworth said earlier this week at an England media event in Worsley. “I’ve done my full rehab course and I’m back moving just the way I was before so I’m just excited to get back on the field.
“I obviously knew it was pretty bad when I did it, so [the Ashes] was definitely on my mind. Once I got the scans sorted and it wasn’t the full rupture, I knew it would be fine. I had the results the next day and as soon as I got the results, I was ringing Waney.”
Australia’s NRL stars ‘not superhuman’
Farnworth is one of six members of the England squad based down under, with the centre facing off against those in the Kangaroos line-up on a weekly basis. As such, while he knows what England can expect, he is keen to dispel the notion of Australia being unbeatable.
“I play against them week in, week out and they’re very talented players but they’re just men, there’s nothing superhuman about them, that’s for sure,” he said. “I love playing the Aussies and I’m keen to get stuck into them at Wembley.
He added: “I’ve got a lot of bets riding on it, I think I’ve made a $1000 bet against everyone in the team so I’m going to be poor if I go back and we’ve lost.”
Farnworth has just signed a new deal to remain with the Dolphins until the end of 2027 and it won’t be long before he’s joined in Queensland by England teammates Morgan Knowles and George Williams, with the latter making the move at the end of next season.
It’s fair to say he’s enjoying working under former St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf, too, who has had a positive impact in his first year in the hot seat.
“He’s a great coach, he drives high standards and he obviously had that year on the way in, too,” Farnworth said. “He’s a great coach to learn off.
“We’ve got a very young, good, up and coming team there and we’re going to hopefully do some special things next year. We’re getting a couple of English lads too in Morgan Knowles and George. I reckon that will be England’s second team over in the NRL.”
