MORGO GIVES PONGA THE NOD
ORIGIN GAME II LATEST
MICHAEL Morgan says his former Cowboys teammate Kalyn Ponga has all the attributes to take State of Origin by storm.
Ponga, who effectively replaced Morgan in the Queensland Maroons after Morgan suffered a season- ending bicep injury, will be thrown into his debut Origin clash tomorrow night as Queensland fight to keep the series alive. “If they throw him (Ponga) into the outside backs ... he’ll be e very hard to contain,” Morgan an said.
AS someone who’s been in Kalyn Ponga’s shoes before, my main advice to my former Cowboys teammate is to enjoy his debut for the Maroons tomorrow night.
Like Kalyn will, I made my Origin debut as a bench utility and while some potential plans are always in place, the hardest part is not knowing when you’ll be thrown into the action, or what position you’ll play.
But having played with the kid, he’s very level- headed, and I’m sure he’s spoken to Kevvie ( Walters) about the possible scenarios in store for him.
Kalyn isn’t as small as a lot of people think. He’s very thick with the legs and powerful, he’s shown that this year. Chances are he will go into the middle, but if they throw him into the outside backs where he’ll get some one- on- one chances, he’ll be very hard to contain.
The unknown about what role you’ll be playing does make things a bit more difficult, but I also found it relaxed me, and you can go into the game with an open mind.
He’s a similar player to Matty “Mango” Bowen, who was also a livewire fullback with great speed and footwork, and he played eight of his 10 Origin games off the bench.
It will be difficult for me watching tomorrow’s game from the couch after I suffered a season- ending bicep injury against the Warriors last week.
I had surgery in Brisbane on Wednesday and will talk to our doctor and physio about whether we take the chance to fix up other issues.
I’ve been dealing with a groin problem, and the stomach issue which kept me out of the first couple of games of the season was something I’d have to manage throughout the year.
I’ll be in a sling now for seven or eight weeks, I’ll get the cast off in 10 days and we’ll decide what happens then.
If anything needs doing I may as well get it done now, because I won’t be playing again this year.
There’s no doubt the Maroons will be much more prepared for what the Blues will throw at them after their huge turnover in personnel this year.
In game one it was tough to pinpoint how NSW would play, given they have a new coach and 11 debutants. We couldn’t do too much homework on them, but now they can plan a bit more.
The situation is similar to last year where the Blues won Origin I, when Andrew Fifita and James Tedesco ( pictured) led the way.
Once we nullified those individuals, it went a long way to winning game two in Sydney, and eventually the series.
In the series opener this year it was Tedesco and Damien Cook who really proved the difference.
I thought we handled the shapes they threw at us in attack pretty well, it was just individual brilliance that got them home.