League icon Phil Gould has declared he “could not understand” Api Koroisau missing out on Origin selection for the series opener as the Blues face an uphill battle to save the series.
In game one, NSW coach Michael Maguire went for Reece Robson in the all important hooker position with the Cowboys rake performing admirably but without the attacking edge of Koroisau.
Robson wasn’t the only contentious selection, with Nicho Hynes and Jarome Luai just about the last players standing before being picked in the halves.
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Hynes has come under scrutiny for his performance and it remains to be seen whether he’s selected for game two with Mitchell Moses fit.
In the lead up to Origin I, Gould declared he would’ve picked Luai and Matt Burton in the halves because he could “trust them” and feels the NSW side were devoid of leadership and confidence, with captain Jake Trbojevic only playing 29 minutes.
“I just didn’t feel the leadership and the confidence in the NSW side, our captain only played 20-odd minutes,” he said on Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus podcast.
“The whole team to me just lacked confidence in what it was doing. It worked really hard, they played their hearts out, they tried as hard as they could, they never gave up, but Origin’s more than that.
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“In our halfback role, whoever they pick for game two, the two special qualities you need are leadership and confidence and we need someone who’s going to come in and say ‘this is how we’re playing’ and ‘this is how we’re going’.
“For me at the moment, if you look around the league, Jarome Luai can do that, Mitchell Moses can do that. If Jarome Luai plays 7 then what are your options at 6? The most likely one is probably Burton or a Keary, there’s not many others at the moment.
“… If I had to coach the side and was going into camp, I’d be very comfortable with Luai and Burton.
“I felt also, Reece Robson’s a great kid , he tries hard but I could not understand not having Api Koroisau as part of that squad who gives you … leadership, confidence.”
Along with key selections, Maguire has faced scrutiny around his bench rotation with the sending off of Joseph Suaalii throwing a spanner in the works.
With Haumole Olakau’atu, Spencer Leniu, Isaah Yeo and Hudson Young on the bench, the Blues were short of outside back options which forced Young into the centres.
On the flipside, Queensland had Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Selwyn Cobbo causing carnage, and NSW were eventually forced to shift Stephen Crichton from left centre to right centre to stem the bleeding, however Gould believes that change was made too late.
“I don’t know that we responded to the send off as well as or as quickly as we could’ve and maybe that’s probably something they didn’t plan for but it took them a long while to find a solution to Suaalii being off and then down to 12-men,” he said.
“How that effects your front row rotation I don’t know, or how you intended to use your captain or why you named him captain for that game. That I don’t understand.
“They might have a reason. I felt like they had a plan for the interchange and they went about the same plan anyway, I don’t know how much it changed throughout the game.
“It took ages to move Crichton over to the right where the problems were and I felt even leading into the game that Nicho Hynes needed Crichton more than Luai needed Crichton to start the game.
“Getting Crichton in between Lomax and Nicho Hynes made more sense to me than just trying to play Crichton and To’o together, that’s a little too cliché.
“I think Jarome Luai could’ve helped Suaalii on that left hand side where he plays at club level. The fact he plays left for his club all the time was one of the factors the tackle went wrong for him on the right-hand side of the field because he hit with the wrong shoulder anyway.”
Maguire will name his NSW side for State of Origin II on Sunday night.