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Justin Hodges hopes Jarryd Hayne can find his way back to the NRL sooner rather than later.

Like most people in rugby league I've been fascinated by what Jarryd Hayne has been able to achieve over the past two years but I really hope he now comes home to make his mark again in the NRL.

The only real time I've spent with Jarryd over the years was when we toured England together in the Kangaroos team at the Four Nations in 2009 but he is obviously a different person now to the young man I met back then.

He found religion and has spent a lot of time getting in touch with his Fijian roots but there is no doubt through it all he has shown himself to be a great athlete and someone who is confident enough to try new things.

The closest the vast majority of rugby league players could ever hope to come to playing in the NFL is on the PlayStation or Xbox but he followed his dream and to play in eight games for such a famous team like the San Francisco 49ers is an achievement no one will ever be able to take away from him.

When he retires and looks back on all of his accomplishments I think that will probably stand out as one of his greatest achievements, to go to a different country and play an entirely different sport and earn the respect of those great footballers. I think it probably blew everyone away.

Of course, he has now missed out on the chance to represent Fiji at the Rugby 7s at the Olympics and has a decision to make about what he does next and I hope his next step is to return to rugby league and the NRL.

There's no doubt that the game will welcome him back with open arms. He was one of the best players in our game by far and was the reason so many kids wanted to buy his jersey or come to the game to watch him play.

Even though he has been training hard as an athlete both in America and more recently with the Fijian rugby team he will need some time to adapt back to the demands of playing in the NRL.

He was learning completely different skills in the NFL and changing his body in a way to best handle that sport but given what Haynesy can do as an athlete it won't take him too long.

In the past when we have seen players come back from rugby union they always seem to struggle in that first year because once you do leave the game it is hard to get back those core skills but it will be a matter of him just becoming familiar with the game again. Once he does that he'll be fine.

Even though I would love to see Haynesy back playing in the NRL I don't think we need to be aggressively chasing him as a game and trying to convince him to come back. He knows what the game is all about and what the game has given him. The game has given all of us so many things that we would never have received if it wasn't for rugby league and I'm sure Haynesy won't have forgotten that.

It's his call now and I've got no doubt that if he still loves the game of rugby league we will see him back in the NRL; whether that's with the Eels or not remains to be seen.

They're going through a tough time with their salary cap dramas and while in many ways it would be fitting to see him go back there I'm pretty sure there would be other teams willing to pay big money to get him to come to their club.

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When Darius Boyd scored with a few minutes to go on Wednesday night I thought the Queensland boys had pulled it out of the fire again but it was actually good to see the New South Wales boys come back and score in the last minute.

I think NSW needed that win in order to bring people back to watch State of Origin football because if Queensland were to keep winning and winning we might find a lot of footy fans lose interest.

There was a fair bit of pushing and shoving in Game Three and I've got no doubt that will carry through to next year.

Paul Gallen and Corey Parker won't be there of course but when you get back into camp and you watch those three games again it triggers your mind back to what happened so those incidents do come up again.

Obviously there were some things that happened that you probably wouldn't expect to see again but there's no doubt both teams will be using what happened in Game Three as motivation to get off to a good start in next year's series.

Acknowledgement of Country

National Rugby League respects and honours the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the lands we meet, gather and play on.

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