Penrith Panthers lock Trent Merrin has been added to the New South Wales Blues squad as 19th man ahead of State of Origin Game 2, to be played at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.
The three extra players in Laurie Daley’s squad were originally Matt Moylan, Jack De Belin and Manly winger Tom Trbojevic. However, De Belin was suspended for one game by the NRL judiciary on Tuesday night and the Blues had to find a replacement to come into the squad should an incident or injury occur in the warm-up.
Merrin, who has played 13 games for the Blues after making his debut in 2011, was dropped from last year’s team after a poor start to the season with a struggling Panthers outfit.
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Unable to pick his form up 12 months later, he was left out of the 2017 squad with the Blues’ forward pack rolling Queensland in Game 1.
Joining him on the Origin sidelines but in the squad is teammate Moylan, who missed the starting 17 despite playing fullback and halves during the 2016 series, including their only victory in Game 3.
The lock, alongside the other two reserves, is unlikely to play Game 2 of the Origin series, but is the only forward listed in the extra men should there be an injury during the warm-up. If that was to occur then Merrin would be rushed into the side as a last-minute replacement.
Apart from representing the Blues, Merrin has also played for Country Origin on three occasions and represented Australia in international rugby league seven times. As well as that, he led the 2015 Prime Minister’s XIII team to Papua New Guinea and played for the NRL All-Stars three times.
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