Hayne Plane feels the State of Origin pain
AN exhausted Jarryd Hayne feared the embarrassment of being hauled off in his State of Origin return due to fatigue after vomiting in the change rooms at half-time and needing support to stop collapsing, conceding the series opener had a ‘‘pretty scary’’ effect on his body.
In an incredible account of the toll a breathless first half had on him and his Blues team-mates, NSW’s prodigal son queried whether he would last the brutal game in which he went to ‘‘hell and back’’ while admitting he doesn’t remember anything said to him at halftime.
The one-time NFL running back and punt returner spent more time patrolling sidelines than steaming into defences in his time in the United States, something which couldn’t prepare him for the rigours of Origin despite almost a year back in the NRL.
‘‘I was rooted,’’ Hayne said. ‘‘I actually collapsed in the change rooms, [I was] spewing up. I was sitting there going, ‘f***, I could be the first centre to get substituted [in Origin]’.
‘‘It ended up being Duges [NSW centre Josh Dugan]. And Duges was behind me [in the change rooms] ... I’m collapsing and he was just that buggered as well that he was looking at me like a zombie.
‘‘My legs just got like jelly. I haven’t lost my legs like that at halftime, that was pretty scary. If I hadn’t put my head onto the table and crouched down I was gone. I was literally going to go. I could [feel] my body doing it I could feel my legs, it was like ‘far out’. It was weird.
‘‘But you’ve just got to go out The Sun-Herald GETTY IMAGES there and just keep going. Like I said you’ve got to go to hell and back, so I wasn’t really scared about it. I was f*****, but it is what it is.’’
Hayne replicated his famous celebration when NSW last won the Origin series in 2014 – climbing aboard the advertising hoardings in front of Blatchy’s Blues – after scoring a secondhalf try in the record game one rout.
But he genuinely feared he might not have been able to take the field in the second half with pain levels he sheepishly admitted to missing while watching Origin from the other side of the world during his time with the San Francisco 49ers.
‘‘You go away and then come back and realise watching it on TV how much it means to you and how much you miss it,’’ Hayne said. ‘‘I remember watching it and just wishing I was out there or [wondering] if I could have an impact or not.
‘‘As much as you miss it, you know the pain they’re going through and that’s what separates this game from any other game in the world.
‘‘It’s Origin ... you need to go to hell and back. You can’t be sitting there feeling sorry for yourself. You collapse, you collapse, then you get up and keep going.
‘‘If you’re coming off, you’re coming off on a stretcher. You’ve just got to keep going, that’s what this game’s about.’’
Hayne’s vivid description of Origin I will add to the endorsements of the series opener, which was described by many experts as the fastest game of rugby league they’ve ever seen.