'I want to play as much as I can': Herbie Farnworth vows to help England recover from World Cup agony

Shaun Wane's side were highly fancied to book an Old Trafford date with Australia after dispatching the Pacific Islanders in the opening game, only to see their hopes crushed by Stephen Crichton's golden-point drop goal.

Farnworth emerged with credit after scoring a late double to take the match to extra time and put himself on the map in front of a national audience.

The 22-year-old, who left the tiny Lancashire village of Blacko for the NRL at 17, heads back to Australia with a dream unfulfilled.

But after getting a taste of Test match rugby, Farnworth has been left wanting more.

"It’s where I want to play," said the Brisbane Broncos centre, who made his competitive debut in the tournament opener.

"I want to play as much as I can for England in these next couple of years. It’s an absolute honour to play for this great country, as I’ve said before.

"It always means so much but the other side of the coin is it hurts so much when you don’t get there.

"It would have been great to push on to the final and win it. That was the goal for us boys but it’s gone now."

England breezed into the last four with the minimum of a fuss – scoring 242 points and conceding only 34 in four comfortable wins – but the hosts were guilty of producing their worst performance on the big stage at the Emirates Stadium.

Trailing 20-12 to a nation appearing in their first semi-final, Wane’s men suddenly sparked into life in a frenzied final quarter to twice draw level and send the game into extra time.

But they made one costly error too many, allowing Crichton to snatch a 27-26 victory for Samoa in the 84th minute of a pulsating contest.

England looked tentative from the start and allowed Matt Parish's side to dictate terms, much to the frustration of Farnworth.

The youngster conceded that England were their own worst enemies on their way to a heartbreaking defeat.

"I still can’t really believe we lost that game," he said.

"It was probably the first time we’ve not played really well in that first half. We’ve made a big deal about coming out in the first half and really giving it to the other teams.

"But this half, I don’t know what happened. It just wasn’t us. We just went away from what we’ve done well. We didn’t complete at all and gave them chances.

"They made the game slow in that first half, which is how they want to play. We just went away from the game plan. It wasn’t our way.

"We had a strong fightback towards the end but it wasn’t enough. Errors again killed us.

"It just really, really hurts. We have got no one to blame but ourselves."