State of Origin: Queensland v New South Wales preview
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 21/06/16 11:01am
Wales international Tyson Frizell will make his State of Origin debut in game two at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday.
It will be third time lucky for the 24-year-old, who finally gets his chance for New South Wales after being 18th man for the opening game in Sydney three weeks ago and for game one in 2015,
St George Illawarra second-rower Frizell made his Wales debut against Ireland five years ago and played for them in the 2011 Four Nations Series and the 2013 World Cup. He was called up following the loss of Boyd Cordner through injury and secured his place on the bench when Wade Graham was ruled out through suspension.
"It's been the third or fourth time in camp now so hopefully I'll just slot in," said Frizell, who had to share what might have been an uncomfortable flight to Coffs Harbour with the disappointed Graham.
"I feel for Wade," Frizell added. "It's not nice seeing something like that happen. Me and Wade go way back and he was pumped for me so it was nice to see that.
"I really felt for him and I didn't want to show too much emotion about it. It probably wasn't the right thing to do but he was so happy for me so that made everything a bit easier."
The Origin series is seen as a Test trial but Frizell will remain eligible for Wales unless called on by the Australian selectors, in the way that Adrian Lam played for Papua New Guinea as well as Queensland.
Cronulla's Jack Bird, 21, will be the Blues' other debutant as Laurey Daley's men seek to keep the 2016 series alive following their 6-4 defeat in Sydney.
However, the Blues crashed to a 52-6 defeat on their last appearance at Suncorp Stadium and the Maroons are firm favourites to seal a 10th Origin series in the last 11 years.
Queensland: 1 Darius Boyd, 2 Corey Oates, 3 Greg Inglis, 4 Justin O'Neill, 5 Dane Gagai, 6 Johnathan Thurston, 7 Cooper Cronk; 8 Matt Scott, 9 Cameron Smith (c), 10 Josh McGuire, 11 Matt Gillett, 12 Sam Thaiday, 13 Corey Parker.
Interchange: 14 Michael Morgan, 15 Jacob Lillyman, 16 Aidan Guerra, 17 Josh Papalii.
New South Wales: 1 Matt Moylan, 2 Blake Ferguson, 3 Michael Jennings, 4 Dylan Walker, 5 Josh Mansour, 6 James Maloney, 7 Adam Reynolds; 8 Aaron Woods, 9 Robbie Farah, 10 James Tamou, 11 Greg Bird, 12 Josh Jackson, 13 Paul Gallen (c).
Interchange: 14 Jack Bird, 15 Tyson Frizell, 16 David Klemmer, 17 Andrew Fifita.