Queensland will be bidding for a sixth straight State of Origin series triumph when the three-game drama begins on Wednesday.
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Queensland will be bidding for a sixth straight State of Origin series triumph when the three-game drama begins in Brisbane on Wednesday.
New South Wales have brought Ricky Stuart back in as coach as the Blues bid to end a miserable run against the Maroons stretching back to 2005.
Stuart, the former Kangaroos coach who masterminded that last Origin triumph six years ago, is back in charge after taking over from Craig Bellamy. He has wasted no time in making his mark, bringing in five new faces for the clash at Suncorp Stadium.
The most eye-catching selection is 21-year-old Josh Dugan, who is preferred at full-back to proven Origin performer Jarryd Hayne, while less of a shock was the call-up of uncapped quartet Akuila Uate, the Fijian winger who starred in the 2008 World Cup, stand-off Jamie Soward and replacement forwards Trent Merrin and Dean Young.
The pressure will be on Soward and his half-back partner Mitchell Pearce as they prepare to take on the formidable pairing of Darren Lockyer and Johnathan Thurston.
Lockyer and Thurston have won 10 of their 15 matches together and three more wins would make them the most successful half-back pairing in Origin history.
Lockyer, who led the Maroons to their 3-0 clean sweep last year, made his Origin debut in 1998 and will draw level with Allen Langer as the most-capped Origin player on 34 appearances on Wednesday. This will be his final Origin series.
Role to play
"Darren understands that he's got a role to play and everybody else had got a role to play and we're going to do it collectively," said Queensland coach Mal Meninga.
"If, in the end result we're going to be successful, then he gets to go out the way he deserves, a winner."
Meninga has chosen two newcomers in centre Dane Nielsen and winger Jharal YowYeh, who made a tryscoring debut in the Anzac Test earlier this month, but his side is packed with 183 Origin caps, compared to just 46 in the Blues line-up.
Even if his side's winning run comes to an end in the opener, Meninga has the comfort of knowing that he has reinforcements at the ready for the second clash in Sydney on June 15.
Greg Inglis, Justin Hodges, David Shillington, Neville Costigan and Dallas Johnson, who have all been part of the Maroons' success over the past five years, are all likely to be fit again in three weeks' time.
Queensland: Slater, Boyd, Nielsen, Tong, YowYeh, Lockyer, Thurston, Scott, Smith, Civoniceva, Myles, Thaiday, Harrison.
Interchange: Cronk, Parker, Lillyman, Hannant.
NSW: Dugan, Morris, Jennings, Gasnier, Uate, Soward, Pearce, King, Ennis, Snowden, Scott, Bird, Gallen.
Interchange: Creagh, Merrin, Mannah, Young.
