Farrell's plan to make up lost ground

He started pre-season last week after he and the other Four Nations representatives were given an extended break.

Farrell, 26, said: “I came in for a few days before Christmas, but I’m back in properly now. It seems like only two minutes since the Grand Final and we’re playing again (in friendlies) in less than two weeks.

“While I was off, I trained on my own to keep ticking over, but nothing’s quite like a pre-season.

“And when you’ve played in the internationals, you come back in and you do feel mentally and physically like lads are in front of you.

“The main thing is get out on the field a lot – we’ll probably have a lot smashed into us over the next few weeks.”

Farrell figured just 16 times last season, missing a 20-game chunk of the campaign due to a troublesome rib injury.

But he returned for the charge to the Grand Final, and won the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man of the match in the Old Trafford decider against Warrington.

“I think the missus is getting a bit sick of seeing the trophy, but it’s not going anywhere!” he smiled.

“It’s one of the best things individually I’ve done in my career. I look at the list of the players and past players on there, and I don’t put myself in that category of some of them.

“If someone said in May I’d finish the year as I did, I wouldn’t have believed them.”