Fired-up Hayne set to scorch Dragons

JARRYD Hayne is poised for another dominant NRL performance tonight as he builds towards a defining Origin moment.

Hayne bounced back from his Origin II shocker to score two tries in the Titans’ win against the Wests Tigers last week in a classy showing.

The superstar is guaranteed his place in the NSW side for the July 12 decider despite his shaky showing in Game Two and Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett’s public plea for Blues selectors to replace him with speedster James Roberts.

Titans captain Ryan James said Bennett’s comments were more a case of “Wayne looking after his players” than a reflection of Hayne’s Blues tenure.

“James Roberts is a great player, he was here, he’s a great mate,” James said.

“I think his (Origin) time will come. He’s going to be there probably in the future at some time.

“But Jarryd’s done a great job for them and he’s one of those players that you can lean on, if you need to win a game, he can do it.”

There’s no doubt Hayne needs to be better than he was last time he played in Sky Blue though and he will want to use tonight’s clash against St George Illawarra as a springboard.

Titans coach Neil Henry said Hayne had been keen to “make amends” for a Game Two showing that was below his standards and using the Gold Coast’s must win clash against the Dragons was the perfect starting point.

“I think he was pretty good last week backing up after Origin and he’ll need to get his hands on the ball again (to) night, we need him involved in the game,” Henry said.

“You can see that he’s got some quality touches in what he does. He was very honest in admitting that his performance in Origin II wasn’t up to scratch – he made a couple of errors there.

“He’ll try to make amends for that and I think the best way he can do that is have a solid preparation via club footy.

“He’s done the first leg of that very well in the game last week and I’m sure he’ll be keen to back it up (to) night.”

Hayne admitted he was under pressure to earn his spot ahead of the Origin series and knew he had to show Daley his form was good enough to warrant selection.

“It was very touch and go whether I got in or not and I think Laurie knows me well enough to know what I do on the big stage,” Hayne ahead of Game Two.

Daley knows Hayne lives for the big moments and can turn a game in a moment, something that could win the Blues their first series since Hayne last played in 2014.

“The thing about Haynesy is he reminds me of Greg Inglis,” Daley said.

“They can be looking like not much is happening and then all of a sudden they do one or two things that just turn the game – that’s what he does.

James had a front-row seat when Hayne did just that against the Tigers last week, scoring two tries and setting up another in a 10-minute period. said Little splits the teams in the recent past, with each having won five of the past 10 games and both claiming victory at home and away. The Titans claimed honours last time they met, emerging 32-12 victors at Kogarah after a double from Nene Macdonald – now a Dragon.