Hayne surging back into Origin calculations

What a difference 80 minutes can make! <br><br>After struggling to adapt at five-eighth and making only a slightly greater impact when moved to the centres, Parramatta’s Jarryd Hayne returns to representative football for City Origin this Friday after producing one of the season’s finest individual performances in the weekend’s upset win over North Queensland.<br><br>Finally shifted to his favoured fullback position, Hayne scored a try, set up two others and had a spectacular solo effort unluckily disallowed to earn man of the match honours.<br><br>From a man lacking the class and confidence he exhibited in 2007, the 21-year-old is now poised to make a dramatic return to the State of Origin arena as the Blues look to break three years of Queensland dominance.<br><br>“It’s great to be back playing rep footy again and hopefully it’s a platform to State of Origin for me,” Hayne told NRL.com after joining his City Origin team-mates in camp this morning.<br><br>“It’s the biggest series for New South Wales ever with Queensland looking for their fourth straight win.<br><br>“It’s going to be huge – and I want to be part of that.<br><br>“Two years ago I learnt what it was like to be a part of that whole experience, the rewards that come with playing for your state and the massive low you feel when you lose.<br><br>“Once you experience it once, you can’t get enough of it.”<br><br>Hayne’s Origin debut was as memorable as they come, the then rookie Eels winger scoring a spectacular solo try right on half-time but later throwing a disastrous pass that led to the match-winning try for Queensland.<br><br>Despite losing the series 2-1, Hayne was touted as the discovery of the year but after a difficult pre-season last year that included being shot at outside a Kings Cross bar, he struggled for form in 2008 as the Eels crashed to an 11th-place finish.<br><br>The experience served him well though and after representing Fiji in the World Cup in November he says he has returned to the Eels a more mature version of the man that wowed the fans in 2006-07.<br><br>“I’m 100 per cent better than the person I was last year,” Hayne said.<br><br>“I’m much more mature now – maturity on the training field and also away from football.<br><br>“I’d say I’m wiser now and hopefully that has been reflected so far this season.”<br><br>Asked about his controversial move to five-eighth at the start of the season, Hayne replied: “I’ve been pretty happy with my form all year but I wasn’t completely comfortable at five-eighth.<br><br>“I felt better when I went back to the centres but fullback is where I played all my footy as a kid and it was great when Daniel told me last Wednesday that I would get my chance against the Cowboys.<br><br>“There has been a bit written about the fitness side of things and that Daniel wasn’t sure if I was ready to start the season at fullback… but I think there were more important things I had to get right.<br><br>“We spoke earlier in the year about the importance of being a good talker and a good dictator for the side and it was important that I showed those leadership qualities because I’m probably looked at as a bit of a senior guy at Parramatta now.<br><br>“It’s up to me to live up to that.<br><br>“But it felt great to help the boys get that win last week.<br><br>“Hopefully I can put in another good performance for City this week and get the call-up for NSW because it’s something I’m desperate to be a part of again.”