NRL Watch: How England's World Cup hopefuls performed in round four

Round four of the 2022 NRL season took place at the weekend, with eight action-packed games and more misery for Oliver Gildart, whose Wests Tigers side slipped to a fourth straight loss. Elliott Whitehead skipped Canberra Raiders to a defeat at Manly Sea Eagles, while a number of other England stars and hopefuls endured mixed fortunes.

Here’s a look at how they got on.

The Burnley-born player racked up 80 minutes for the fourth week running in Brisbane’s 20-6 defeat at New Zealand Warriors. Farnworth has now played every minute of every game so far this term to underline his class in a World Cup year.

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Could the Lancastrian yet make it into Shaun Wane’s England squad for this year’s rearranged tournament?

He is certainly a valued player at the Broncos, where his latest display saw him fail to add to the four tries he has scored so far this term. Instead, he made two tackle breaks, 44 post-contact metres, collected 16 passes from team-mates, and made 14 tackles.

Farnworth also amassed 95 metres, providing further food for thought for England boss Wane on this side of the world.

The former Bradford Bulls star and current Canberra captain has been a mainstay of the Raiders for the past six seasons now. Rarely injured, ever reliable and with an impressive work-rate and ability to sniff out a try, Whitehead is now in his seventh year in the Australian capital.

The England back-rower made his fourth appearance of the 2022 season in Saturday’s 25-6 defeat at Manly Sea Eagles. Whitehead, 32, played just 31 minutes and made just 12 post-contact metres - his lowest of the season so far.

His performance against Manly saw him line up at loose