England complete series victory over Samoa with triumph at Headingley

England fought back from an early deficit to beat Samoa 34-16 and clinch a 2-0 series victory at Headingley.

Centre Herbie Farnworth scored two tries and set up another for Jack Welsby as the home side followed up last week’s 34-18 win at Wigan with another six-try display.

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, but 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 remainder of the first half, Liam Marshall marking his international debut with a try after cutting in from the left wing to break two tackles and stretch out over the line.

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 their extra man.

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

An England score early in the second half would surely have put the result beyond doubt, but instead it was Samoa who made the brighter start and quickly reduced the deficit.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s initial break was halted and his attempted offload went to ground, but Welsby failed to hack the loose ball into touch and Tago pounced to touch down over the line.

England responded superbly to restore 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 and Smith converting.

Only a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Tuivasa-Sheck prevented Junior Nsemba from extending the home side’s lead, but Farnworth was proving almost impossible 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.