Wigan Warriors surge up table 'nothing to do with me', laughs Liam Farrell

The second row was a big miss earlier in the season, when he was ruled out for 15 matches with a pectoral muscle tear sustained in the World Club Challenge against Sydney Roosters back in February.

By the time he returned to the fold at Hull KR in early June, Wigan were ninth on the ladder.

Since then a run of nine wins from 10 matches has seen the Warriors climb level with second-placed Warrington – and looking the team most likely to topple League Leaders’ Shield winners St Helens.

“Honestly, I just think it was a massive coincidence!” laughed Farrell.

“We did start performing in the Hull KR away game, we scraped a win by a single point, and it’s all stemmed from there.

“Week on week, there’s been gradual improvement, and the coaches have been pushing a lot of things on to us that have made us better.

“Fortunately enough for me, I rejoined the squad at the right time, where everything was starting to come together.

“It’s nice to hear plaudits, but you don’t listen to stuff like that – or your head would start to get a little bit big!”

Farrell has also brought something extra to the table on top of his usual quality and experience – a fantastic return of eight tries from his 12 matches played.

“The tries are coming thick and fast at the moment – and it’s more of a surprise to me than anyone!” he smiled.

“I’ll obviously take them all day long, wherever I can, because I know they can soon dry up as a back-rower.”