Pair wear Pride for Origin III
THE Pride has reason to stand even taller during its recent streak after two young guns were picked for Origin.
Jake Clifford and Murray Tualagi have been selected for the Maroons under-20 side for the curtain-raiser to the upcoming State of Origin III.
“It’s well deserved,” Coach Ty Williams said.
“They will have their chance over the next week, which is good to see.
“Both are growing in confidence; moving forward, that is good for us.
“If they have a good result they’ll come back with increased confidence.”
Williams said Clifford was entering a challenging environment from which to make a bid for the Cowboys.
“It’s a tough one; he’ll be going into an environment where they’re not winning at the moment,” Williams said.
“They’re finding ways lose the game.
“He’s a confident kid and so is Murray; it’s really up to what he does with the experience.”
The changed team roster follows a hard-fought battle against the Townsville Blackhawks in Atherton.
The Pride slogged on in poor conditions and took an early blow when Rod Griffin crossed the line 10 minutes into the match to give the visitors an early lead.
The Pride prevailed in a close-run thing that was anyone’s game until the siren. to
“It was to and fro for a long time but when we saw our chance we took it,” Williams said.
This weekend Shawn Bowen will stand in for Tualagi, and Jack Campagnolo has been given the nod at halfback.
“We are pretty confident with the squad to take the field for us,” Northern Pride CEO Greg Dowling said.
The team will run on against Easts Tigers this weekend wearing indigenous colours as designed by a young artist at Gordonvale’s Djarragun College. WALLY Lewis has backed Ben Hunt to have his most prominent State of Origin game in response to his move to the bench for next Wednesday’s clash.
Hunt played halfback in Queensland’s two Origin losses this year and coach Kevin Walters said this week that he was convinced the Dragons playmaker was “prepared to do anything for the team to be in the team’’.
Hunt said he took some time to get over his disappointment of a grand final loss with the Broncos in 2015, and Maroons insiders will have been keen to gauge his mindset when he joined the Origin III team camp on Monday.
“To have seen Ben sprint out of dummy-half on a number of occasions before, you can understand what they are looking for with him on the bench,’’ Lewis said.
“It’s got to happen. It will add some fuel to his tank that he’s disappointed he has the No.14 jersey, not the No.7. I can understand his disappointment but he has to put up.”