FRONT AND CENTRE

Arrow braces for life at the heart of the pack

JAI Arrow will embrace a future in the Maroons front-row, after Kevin Walters indicated he and Josh Papalii could remain as starters following their efforts in Origin III.

The victory at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night was the first in which the Titans young gun has started for Queensland and also his first win in the Origin arena.

Arrow, who turned 23 yesterday, became the youngest starting prop in Queensland’s Origin history.

He made a solid statement from the front-row, amassing 103m off 13 runs and making 19 tackles in 45 minutes.

Walters said after the game that he had seen enough from his troops to know they had a bright future, singling out the performances of Arrow and Papalii.

And Arrow said afterwards that he would be more than happy to play the rest of his Origin career in that position, following the thrilling experience of Game Three.

“Now that I’ve had a taste of it, I definitely want more,” he said. “It’s something I want to strive to. The feeling’s so good to run out there and start.

“There’s a lot of emotions going through you, a lot of fire going through you.

“You don’t want to let your teammates down.

“You want to bust your gut until you have nothing left and that’s something I pride myself on, it’s something I love.”

Arrow also praised his “rock solid” starting partner in Papalii, who helped him through the experience of starting and the speed of the game from the first kick-off and enabled the Maroons a solid base.

“It was faster than when I came on for the first two games but I loved every moment of it,” he said.

“To be out there for the kick-off is something I will never forget. It gives me goosebumps head to toe just thinking about it.

“I thought (Papalii) was unbelievable. He’s not the tallest bloke in the world but he’s rock solid.”