England complete rugby league series win over Samoa

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England complete rugby league series win over Samoa

NRL ace Herbie Farnworth has scored two tries as England fought back from an early deficit to beat Samoa 34-16 at Headingley and clinch a 2-0 series victory in their rugby league Test series.

The Dolphins centre not only grabbed the key double but also and set up another for Jack Welsby as the hosts followed up last week’s 34-18 win at Wigan with another six-try display in Leeds on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).

“Herbie Farnworth was really, really good. In both games he’s been outstanding,” said England coach Shaun Wane.

“He’s had a bit of a personal problem this week and missed a session, and to come back and perform like that he’s a credit to himself.”

“He’s a credit to the Dolphins and the NRL, and I’m just glad he’s English.”

Only some desperate defence kept England from scoring an early try, the video referee confirming Deine Mariner had managed to get downward pressure over the line before Harry Newman had touched down the loose ball in the corner.

The home side had to settle for a 10th-minute penalty from Harry Smith after Luciano Leilua was penalised for a high tackle on opposite number Victor Radley.

Leilua quickly made amends at the other end with a well-weighted kick which was superbly gathered by Shawn Blore to score.

Blore should then have turned provider in the 17th minute when the visitors created an overlap on the left, but opted to go for the line himself rather than pass to the unmarked Jake Tago and was tackled just short of the line.

That proved to be a costly error as England scored 20 unanswered points in the rest of the first half, Liam Marshall marking his international debut with a try.

Junior Pauga was then sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes after a forearm into John Bateman’s head as the second row was in the process of being tackled, and England took full advantage of the indiscipline.

A superb ****** from captain George Williams allowed the stand-off to exploit a big ***** in the Samoan defence to score untouched, before Smith’s cut-out pass set up Matty Ashton to ***** over in the corner.

Pauga returned to the pitch for the last five minutes of the half but was unable to prevent England’s fourth try as Farnworth scored a brilliant solo effort from 40 metres, with Smith kicking the extras to make it 22-6 at halftime.

Tago pounced soon after the break to narrow the deficit but England restored their 16-point lead after a spell of pressure close to the Samoa line, Farnworth bursting through some poor attempted tackles to score his second try, which Smith converted.

Farnworth proved almost impossible for the Samoans to stop, and the centre left two defenders trailing in his wake before setting up Welsby for the simplest of scores.

Jeremiah Nanai collected Jarome Luai’s neat kick to score a late try for Samoa, but it was too little, too late for the Pacific Islanders.

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