Immortal inspection: How a playmaker can win – or lose – an Origin opener

May 27, 2026 — 5:00am

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It wouldn’t be Origin without an injury scare or team shake-up. And this time, it’s the Blues turn to deal with the upheaval of losing their five-eighth and kicking x-factor.

I really feel for Mitchell Moses. The feedback I got from both he and Nathan Cleary was about how excited they were to be playing together as halves.

It’s a shame that for all their dominance at club level, they’ve still played only one game together in the NSW six and seven jerseys.

But Ethan Strange comes in with a serious run threat and he won’t be overawed – he’s been in camp for 10 days and last year’s Kangaroos tour was massive for his development as a young half.

In wet weather, his left-foot step will be particularly dangerous if he, Reece Robson and James Tedesco can target Queensland around the ruck.

But where he does his best work is on the left-edge alongside Canberra teammate and enforcer Hudson Young. Both the Raiders boys will be targeting Sam Walker with their incredible footwork and power running.

NSW will miss Moses’ long kicking most. It leaves Cleary taking on basically the entire kicking game because Robson doesn’t really have a long boot out of dummy-half and Strange has mostly been the secondary kicker with a few bombs here and there for Canberra.

The Blues’........

© The Sydney Morning Herald