He was lambasted for his performance in Game Two but Queensland centre Will Chambers has leapt to the defence of his Blues opposite Jarryd Hayne and predicted that he will hit back hard when the 2017 Holden State of Origin Series goes on the line on Wednesday.
With NSW leading 16-6 just prior to half-time, Hayne was criticised for not throwing a pass to winger Brett Morris that may have given the Blues an unassailable lead and then made two further errors in the second half as the Maroons launched their audacious comeback.
Two nights after his Origin nightmare Hayne scored two tries for the Titans against the Wests Tigers and last week was best on ground against the Dragons, giving Chambers every reason to believe he'll be free of any Origin scars.
"Do you think he's going to lie down? That's mad," Chambers said on Friday.
"He's going to come, he's going to come fired up and he's going to be ready to play Origin.
"You saw two days later when he backed up against the Tigers he went out and scored two tries.
"One bad game doesn't mean much, he'll come Wednesday night and we know what to expect.
"We saw what he did in Game One at Suncorp and it's going to be a big occasion and we know that he'll be up for the challenge."
Chambers and his wing partner Dane Gagai have been two of Queensland's best players in the first two games of the series and have 733 run metres between them, taking plenty of tough carries from deep to start sets on the right note.
They have also been credited for the defensive job they have done on Queensland's right side but the Storm centre pointed out that Hayne and Morris have scored three tries during the series.
"To an extent [our defence] was good but he's still scoring tries, so it's still going to be a tough challenge," said Chambers, who is playing in his seventh Origin match on Wednesday night.
"For all the criticism he copped, he still scored tries and he still did his job.
"He's a special talent and he's like the rest of them, he could play anywhere in the footy side.
"But this is the job I'm going to have to do and I'm going to have to work with Cooper [Cronk] and Matt Gillett and Dane Gagai and try to nullify what he does."
In addition to getting his own house in order Chambers has been assisting fellow centre Michael Morgan who is starting an Origin game for the first time in a position in which he has not started in since coming into the Telstra Premiership.
During Friday's training session Chambers and Morgan engaged in an in-depth chat about the defensive challenge of playing in the centres with Chambers passing on some advice for how Morgan should handle his Blues opposite Josh Dugan.
"He just asked a few questions about defending out there and asked what I thought and I just gave him a bit of feedback and different ideas and what to expect," said Chambers.
"He's excited by the challenge and I think he'll do a really good challenge there, I think he'll be really good there.
"It's a position that when you're as talented as Michael Morgan is and Darius Boyd, you can slot in anywhere in a footy team.
"You've seen that with the way 'Morgs' has played his Origin career. He's come off the bench and played everywhere anyway.
"He plays five-eighth at club-land and then plays in the ruck.
"He's going well there."
