Buderus’s Origin chances not affected
Country coach and NSW assistant Laurie Daley does not believe hooker Danny Buderus has hurt his chances of earning a State of Origin recall by withdrawing from Sunday’s City-Country rugby league clash.
Buderus ruled himself out of the annual representative fixture on Monday, citing an Achilles injury.
That raised eyebrows after the Newcastle veteran’s club coach, Wayne Bennett, had embarked on a two-week campaign urging selectors to rest him from the clash.
Bennett had argued a rest would give him a better chance of representing NSW and that he had nothing to prove by playing in the traditional selection trial.
But the 34-year-old, who is believed to be in Adelaide while the Knights have the bye, was picked on Sunday.
He told Daley on Monday that he had been carrying an injury that would prevent him from training until two days before the match.
Daley was satisfied and said it should not affect his chances of adding to his 21 NSW appearances.
“I think he’s been playing a good brand of football. He’s suited to State of Origin,” Daley told reporters on Monday.
“I know that Ricky has been very impressed with the way he’s been performing.”
Daley also refused to accept Bennett’s claim that Buderus, a five-time Country representative, didn’t want to play on Sunday.
“No, he wanted to be a part of it and he made that point clear to me when I spoke to him,” Daley said.
“But he did say that he’s had an ongoing issue with his Achilles tendon and he felt it was within his best interests to rest it.
“He’s been a great servant and didn’t want to let Country down and he just indicated he wouldn’t be able to do a lot of running and wouldn’t be able to run until Friday or Saturday.”
In his absence, Gold Coast lock Greg Bird will captain the side – with the new skipper admitting he was disappointed to find out he would not be playing with Buderus this weekend.
“I was under the assumption that Bedsy was going to play, but it’s not to be and I’m very proud to have the job of captaincy,” Bird told AAP.
“I’m disappointed for the team, but I’m not disappointed in him. It’s his decision. If his body isn’t up to it, his body isn’t up to it.
“He’s done everything in rugby league to have shown his wares and proved himself at rep level. I don’t think he’s got anything else to prove.”
Melbourne utility forward Ryan Hinchcliffe moves from the bench to take on the hooking role, with Canberra half Josh McCrone joining a five-man bench.
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The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments
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April 17th 2012 @ 10:57am
Gareth said | April 17th 2012 @ 10:57am | Report comment
Give Hinchcliffe a go. Surely NSW have learned their lesson from pea-hearted, disinterested players like Cooper, Lyon and Gasnier. Feigning injury to get out of City-Country should give you a pretty clear sign a player isn’t going to put it all on the line for their state.
April 17th 2012 @ 12:45pm
baller said | April 17th 2012 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
bedsy will be there and give 110% as always
April 17th 2012 @ 1:49pm
Paul said | April 17th 2012 @ 1:49pm | Report comment
If i was Hinchcliffe id pull out to, Theres no way he can play himself into the SOO team, Look what happened last year and the blokes who havent picked a winning team in 6 years are the same ones this time round. Can someone explain to me how they pick the selectors for soo?
April 17th 2012 @ 2:11pm
GC Tiger said | April 17th 2012 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
They find 4 of the stupidest people they can find. Get them drunk, find Ricky and ask who his mates are that currently play then go back to the 4 stupid people ask them to memorise the names. The next day they ring them back and if you can remember who his mates were then you get the job.
Pretty simple really.
April 18th 2012 @ 3:01pm
B.A Sports said | April 18th 2012 @ 3:01pm | Report comment
If Buderus isn’t up to playing for Country, how will he be up to playing Origin?
April 18th 2012 @ 5:50pm
yewonk said | April 18th 2012 @ 5:50pm | Report comment
i dont care im a queenslander but smith will run riot if you send buderus out there. he is done for rep footy, cam smith is far superior to buderus and will pull him apart. hinchclife knows the boys game initially i thought ennis but hinchclife has so much going for him.