Inspirational skipper Robbie Farah says he can’t wait to reunite with his NRL teammates and lead the Wests Tigers into battle at their spiritual home on Saturday night.

Farah has missed the Tigers’ past three games due to injury and representative commitments but the NSW State of Origin hooker returns for the must-win clash with reigning premiers Melbourne at Leichhardt Oval.

The Tigers scored a gutsy 17-12 win over Canberra last Saturday at Campbelltown without Farah and his Blues front-row teammate Aaron Woods, who is also back for the Storm showdown.

The joint venture have won 12 of their past 15 matches at Leichhardt, but two of those defeats have come at the hands of the Storm.

“I’m excited to get back here. I haven’t been around the boys for a while so it’s good to be back here,” Farah said on Friday.

“They had a great win last week against the Raiders, which me and Aaron watched and we’re really proud of the boys.

“I know we’re both keen to get back here. We’re both local boys here at Leichhardt and we’re wearing the heritage jerseys tomorrow, so it’s a big occasion for us and we can’t wait to get out there.

“It’s a place that we enjoy playing at, so it’s not hard to come back here and get up for a game, especially against the Storm.”

Farah, almost fully recovered from a broken eye socket, is tipping Woods’ first taste of Origin on Wednesday night will take the 22-year-old prop to another level for the Tigers.

“It’s probably not a night to remember in terms of the result, but sometimes you learn from those sort of experiences and those sort of losses,” he said.

“It will make him a better player. He’ll come back here and NRL will seem so much slower to him because of the experience he had up there.

“Especially that first 20 minutes, it was pretty hectic in the middle of the park.”

While the Tigers are bolstered by the return of their Origin stars, the Storm will be without Queensland and Australian captain – and Farah’s No.9 sparring partner – Cameron Smith, who suffered a nasty cut under the eye at Suncorp Stadium.

“He’s a big loss for them, no doubt,” Farah said.

“When you take a player of his calibre out of their team, he’s hard to replace.

“But I watched their game last week against the Gold Coast when they were without their Origin stars and it wasn’t until the 77th minute that the Gold Coast put them away.

“So they’re a team that competes for the 80 minutes no matter who they put out there. They’re a tough proposition.”