Workrate behind Pangai selection as Fittler urges rookies to keep cool

Blues coach Brad Fittler will look to a front-row partnership forged in Queensland to lay the platform in Wednesday night’s Origin series opener, but he wants Tevita Pangai Junior to stay disciplined.

Pangai played alongside Payne Haas for four seasons at the Broncos and the pair have been reunited after the shock selection of the Bulldogs enforcer for his Origin debut in a new look NSW forward pack for the Adelaide Oval clash.

Along with Raiders second-rower Hudson Young, Pangai is expected to bring added aggression to a Blues side that NSW insiders feel was “bullied” by Queensland in last year’s series decider at Suncorp Stadium.

However, Fittler is also aware that any player who oversteps the mark is likely to face a stint in the sin-bin – something neither team can afford – and has told his forwards to play with control.

“We have been really happy with the preparation, they have come together well,” Fittler said.

“We don't dwell on what's happened in the past but whatever happens on the field, we need to be in control and hopefully handle the situation.”

Fittler insisted that Pangai wasn’t chosen just for his aggression and praised the 27-year-old's improved work-rate this season under new Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo.

“It is an opportunity for him,” Fittler said. “A lot of people assume he is going to go out and play a certain way, but he just needs to go out and do his best, controlled and be good for us.

“Not many people pay attention to what he has been doing off the ball, and under Cameron he has really done a great job, he has upped his work-rate and I am confident he will do all of that team stuff well.

“I didn’t realise how close he is to Payne, so that has been a bit of a bonus for us. Those two blokes have been inseparable.”

Former NSW captain Paul Harragon is excited by the selection of Pangai and revealed he had personally congratulated Fittler on the team chosen for the series opener.

“There is a real strategy there, you can see that and I like it a lot," Harragon said.

"The two new guys have the same style, they are firebrands, they are mobile and they are really aggressive, so they are suited for this team."

After Pangai and Haas absorb the early exchanges, Fittler is expected to look to Junior Paulo and Cameron Murray to use their footwork on the tiring Queensland defence.

Fittler also confirmed that 2022 Dally M Medallist Nicho Hynes would be used at dummy half to give hooker Api Koroisau a rest.

“He will get a crack at hooker at some stage in the game and he has also played for Melbourne in the middle, he has played halves, in the centres and fullback as well, so he covers a lot of positions," Fittler said.

Noting that the team who wins the opening Origin has gone on to win the series on 72 per cent of occasions, Fittler said the Blues would come out firing and has no plans to reshuffle his backline after the loss of Latrell Mitchell with a calf injury.

Maroons coach Billy Slater said he expected Penrith's right edge combination of Brian To'o and Stephen Crichton, who has been called in to replace Mitchell, to remain on the left side as named.

“We are expecting that left edge to stay that way, but you have got to expect the unexpected in our game," Slater said.

"There are a whole heap of Penrith players and ex-Penrith players in the NSW team so naturally they are going to fall into that sort of structure, but you have got the likes of [James] Tedesco and others players that have their own style as well.

“With those combinations, I have played at this level alongside some club team-mates and it certainly is a help when you get out there and you fall into those team structures."