The boy from Blacko is a superstar in Brisbane but Herbie Farnworth would love nothing more than to defeat Australia.

HE may have spent the past nine years in Australia, but there’s no doubt at all which side England’s Herbie Farnworth is really on.

As soon as he begins to speak it’s reassuring to hear the Lancashire accent is still loud and clear above only a minor Aussie twang.

“There’s just the odd word that trips me up sometimes,” he laughs.

“I moved at 17 so I’ve picked up a little twang, and I’ve lost a few slang words from over here. But once I’m around the English boys it all comes back pretty quick. 

“In Australia I get slated for being English, and then when I come back home I’m slated for being Aussie. I can’t win!”

The boy from Blacko is now a superstar in Brisbane but has never forgotten his roots in the sleepy village five miles north of Burnley.

It’s where Farnworth developed the sporting talent that saw him coveted in both football and rugby league, and it’s where he returns each time international action brings him back to England.

It’s also where he left much of his family behind when he moved to the other side of the world at the beginning of 2017.

“Whenever I go home it feels like I’ve not left. It’s a close-knit village, everyone knows me from a boy,” he explains.

“It’s just nice to see all my family and friends again. I don’t get to see them that often but when I do it’s special. Having them watch me play is a rare occasion which makes it even better for me. They’ll be coming to all three games.”

Ah yes, the Ashes. For all the sweet talk of home, Farnworth is here on business – namely to beat the country he now lives in and secure “bragging rights” that, you suspect, he would make full use of when he returns to his current club, the Dolphins.

The odds are not in England’s favour. Australia have won the last 13 series against Great Britain and while the 22-year Ashes hiatus has seen a whole generation of players come and go, and one of the team names change, the difference in rugby league’s stature in the respective nations has, if anything, only widened.

The NRL is the epicentre of the sport and Farnworth knew that early on, hence the teenage summer trips to Brisbane, alongside uncle and mentor Bill Foley, a former Wigan recruiter, which resulted in being spotted by the Broncos. 

That is reflected in Australia’s continued dominance of the international game, including winning the last World Cup in 2022, when Farnworth made his England bow.

Pick a fantasy World XIII and you may well pick only one Englishman. Farnworth is judged by many to be the best centre on the planet, and has been in the Dally M Team of the Year for two of the past three seasons.

But the 25-year-old is also best placed to judge whether the Kangaroos really can be beaten.

“I play against them week in, week out. They’re very talented players, but they’re just men,” he insists. 

“There’s nothing superhuman about them, that’s for sure. I love playing the Aussies and I’m keen to get stuck into them at Wembley.”

Farnworth made his NRL debut in 2019 and swiftly established himself as one of the league’s hottest prospects. The brightest spot of a 2020 season in which the Broncos shockingly finished bottom, he helped their rise back towards the top, his final game for the club coming in the 2023 Grand Final loss to Penrith.

A cross-city switch to the Dolphins, where he recently signed a contract extension until the end of 2027, is yet to yield a play-off appearance but he is enjoying the challenge of helping the NRL’s newest franchise to grow alongside former St Helens coach Kristian Woolf.

Farnworth says: “He’s had a massive impact there, he’s a great coach. He drives high standards. I had that (first) year under Wayne (Bennett) too, who was a great coach to learn off. 

“We’ve got a very young, up-and-coming team there and we can hopefully do some special things next year. We’re getting another couple of English lads in Morgan Knowles and George (Williams in 2027), so I reckon they’ll be (everyone in) England’s second team in the NRL.”

This season hasn’t been without drama. In May, Farnworth was hospitalised for two days with a leg infection, and only left hours before a game against Canterbury.

“I had a blood infection,” he explains. It got cleared the morning of the game and I flew down to Sydney and played. I was lucky really, it was a wet game and the ball didn’t come out wide to me much!”

Then in August, Farnworth was struck down by a torn hamstring against New Zealand Warriors in Auckland. Cue great concern 11,000 miles away that England’s greatest weapon could be out of the Ashes.

“I knew it was pretty bad when I did it so it (missing the Ashes) was definitely on my mind, but once I got the scan and it wasn’t the full rupture I knew I’d be fine,” he says.

“It’s fine now, I’ve done my full rehab course and I’m back moving just the way I was before.” 

Great news for England, undoubtedly a stronger side with him than without him for the three huge Tests – in every sense of the word – to come at Wembley (October 25), Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool (November 1) and Leeds’ AMT Headingley (November 8).

Farnworth is now a fixture of the side and while Australia are a whole different proposition to Tonga and Samoa, against whom England have enjoyed series whitewashes in the past two years (Farnworth missing the former in 2023 due to injury), he feels the team is building.

“We’ve got a really strong bond as a team,” he says, “and we’re planning on doing something special.”

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 514 (November 2025)