Manly prop Brent Kite missed selection for New South Wales for the series-opening State-of-Origin match against Queensland only four days after playing in Australia's win over New Zealand in a rugby league test.
Blues selectors preferred Brett White and Ben Cross to Kite for the May 21 interstate clash in Sydney, considered the highlight of the Australian rugby league calendar.
"Brent played for Australia three or four days ago, he was in our discussions for a long time but this is a team we think will do the best job in the way we want to play the game," coach Craig Bellamy said.
Brisbane Broncos halfback Peter Wallace won the most contentious spot, the 22-year-old playmaker earning his Origin debut in a halves pairing with Australia five-eighth Greg Bird.
Wallace, 22, got the nod ahead of seasoned veterans Brett Finch, Matt Orford and Jarrod Mullen after utility Kurt Gidley was ruled out with a fractured cheek bone.
Bird, who plays lock at club level but has filled in as pivot for Australia in its last two test matches, was given the No. 6 jersey ahead of Braith Anasta.
Gold Coast forward Anthony Laffranchi earned a deserved Origin debut in an interchange bench that also includes veteran backrower Craig Fitzgibbon, who missed the last two Origin series, Anthony Tupou and Ben Hornby.
New South Wales selectors made nine changes to the lineup that won the last game of last year's 2-1 series loss to Queensland.
Queensland selectors overlooked Gold Coast Titans halfback Scott Prince, arguably the most in-form player in the National Rugby League, and picked Karmichael Hunt at five-eighth to fill in for injured skipper Darren Lockyer.
A late push for Prince to partner Australia halfback Johnathan Thurston in a new look halves pairing was ignored, with Thurston holding the No. 7 jersey and Hunt switching from fullback to make room for Billy Slater at the back.
Queensland chairman of selectors Des Morris said it was a tough decision, but selectors felt that Prince was a halfback and Hunt's versatility made him a better option as a makeshift five-eighth.
"It's a big job to fill obviously with a player of Darren's caliber not available, we feel [Hunt] has played a fair bit of that position during the game and he's very strong in defense," Morris said. "We think he'll be a good mix with Johnathan."
Morris said he felt for Prince but pointed out the Titans's play maker was a genuine halfback and Hunt's versatility made him a better option for the five-eighth position.
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Rangers on Wednesday bowed out of the UEFA Champions League playoffs with a humiliating 6-0 defeat at the hands of Club Brugge which piles further pressure on head coach Russell Martin, while SL Benfica secured a place in the competition proper at the expense of Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce. The Glasgow giants traveled to Belgium right up against it after losing 3-1 at home in last week’s first leg, when they conceded three times in the opening 20 minutes. They never looked like turning the tie around as Club Brugge took the lead inside five minutes at the Jan Breydelstadion through Nicolo Tresoldi
Australian Alex de Minaur reached the second week of the US Open for the third year in a row with little fanfare on Saturday and said he intended to keep winning until the tournament organizers were forced to give him better billing. Despite being the eighth seed and a quarter-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur’s third-round match against German Daniel Altmaier was scheduled for Court 17 — the smallest of the four stadium venues in the precinct. “It is a little bit of a headscratcher for me. I’m not gonna lie,” he told reporters after progressing 6-7 (9/7), 6-3, 6-4,
Noah Lyles on Thursday warmed up for the upcoming athletics world championships by chasing down Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo to win the 200m at the Diamond League final. Lyles trailed Tebogo at the start, but gradually erased the deficit over the final 100m and pipped the Botswana sprinter to the line by centimeters. Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and reigning world champion in both the 100m and 200m, clocked 19.74 seconds in a slight headwind. Tebogo was 0.02 seconds behind. It was Lyles’ sixth Diamond League title, a record for track athletes. “Six, that’s a big number,” Lyles said. “Shoot, that’s another record on
RSS