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PRICHARD: NSW should use Austin's powers in Origin 2

7th June, 2015
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Blake Austin will make his return against the Panthers. (Photo: NRL images)
Expert
7th June, 2015
34
1805 Reads

NSW has got to do something different to improve its chances of winning State of Origin 2. Picking Blake Austin on the bench would be a good start.

Austin has got the potential to be a Craig Wing-type player for the Blues. The versatile Wing played 12 games for NSW from 2003 to ’09 and all of them were from the bench.

Wing first came into the team when Phil Gould was coach. He could cover the halves and hooker – and a couple of other positions at a pinch – but that wasn’t necessarily the key to his being there.

There were times when Gould sent him on for someone other than a key-position player with the task of just being busy.

Wing would just position himself near the ball and either use his playmaking skills to try to make something happen or be a potentially dangerous support player. Either way, his presence usually pepped the team up and gave NSW another option that Queensland was forced to worry about.

Blues coach Laurie Daley said straight after the 11-10 loss to the Maroons in Origin 1 that he was going to stick with Mitchell Pearce and Trent Hodkinson as his halves for Game 2 in Melbourne on Wednesday week. Presuming he is not planning to go back on that statement when he names his 17-man squad on Tuesday morning, there is no point in anyone spruiking Austin as a potential starter in the halves.

But the bench is an entirely different subject and the very nature of Austin as a player means that putting him there at the expense of a forward wouldn’t mean there was a risk of a spot being wasted.

Austin wouldn’t just be there as a player to cover for injury in the halves or to give the starting hooker a short break.

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He would be there as an attacking livewire who could take advantage of the NSW forward pack doing well, or the opposition defence getting tired. Or purely as a potential game-breaker if it was in the balance and the Blues needed to try to find that something extra.

And, like Wing was, Austin is capable of doing his share of defence.

This is obviously a must-win game for the Blues and there is a train of thought that it is not a game where you blood an Origin rookie. That would be an understandable consideration if we were talking about the starting side – and particularly if it were one of the so-called ‘spine’ positions.

But we’re not. We’re talking about someone who could be sent out there with a bit of freedom to hang around the action in attack and look for the right time to become directly involved.

Austin isn’t too young to get his chance. He’s 24 and has been playing first grade since 2011. It’s just that, as promising as he looked, he didn’t really find the right club for him until this year.

Playing five-eighth at Canberra, he has quickly developed into that club’s most important player and one of the most exciting players in the competition.

NSW defended very well in Origin 1, but it wasn’t enough to get them a win and that was at home at ANZ Stadium. Now they have to win at a neutral venue – the MCG – to keep the series alive. It would be a big ask to rely on another huge defensive effort to do that.

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Not against a Queensland side in which a Johnathan Thurston, or a Greg Inglis, or a Billy Slater could potentially cut loose at any time.

The Blues must come up with more than that. Austin could give them the bit of the x-factor they need.

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