Play it again, Sam: Alfie tips protege for long Origin future

Maroons great Allan Langer believes rookie halfback Sam Walker has a long Origin career ahead of him after being arguably Queensland’s best player on debut in Wednesday night’s gut wrenching 22-20 loss.

Walker has often been likened to Langer because of his diminutive size and playing style, and he lived up to those comparisons by laying on the first two tries as Queensland raced to an early 20-0 lead.

The 24-year-old set up Queensland’s first points with a deft grubber through a hole in the defensive line for his centre Robert Toia to pounce on with the game just nine minutes old.

Four minutes later and he was at it again with a short pass to put prop Tom Fleger on a trajectory to the try line.

He also didn’t miss a goal with three conversions and a penalty all raising the flags.

“It was a great debut and he’s just shown that he's up to Origin level, which is good,” Langer said.

“We’ve got Tommy Dearden injured, which is sad, and it doesn’t look like he will play in this series but we know that Sammy can do the job.

“He's got a great short kicking game, and I know he works hard on his long kicking game as well. He's only at the start of his career, so he's got a big future ahead of him.”

Langer, who represented Queensland in 34 Origins from 1987 to 2002, played with Walker’s father Ben and uncles Chris and Shane at the Broncos and has known Leeds-born Sam since he was young.

A stalwart of Maroons camps as a player and staff member, Langer was the ideal mentor for Walker before his debut at Accor Stadium.

“I love him," Langer said. "I played with his dad and his uncles, and they are a great family. His grandparents are here too and they're such a lovely family, so it’s great to see him do so well.

“He’s from Ipswich and he played at my junior club (Norths Tigers). His mum used to serve in the canteen, and he's got such a good family behind him as well.

I just said to play his own game and enjoy himself. He doesn't stress out too much about things and I just think he did his job so well.

"He’s got a good level head on his shoulders and that’s the way he plays. He does it every weekend in the NRL, so when you get to this level you improve, certainly with the players around him and it just gives him more confidence.”

As State of Origin debuts go, it was a bobby-dazzler.

Yet Walker cut a forlorn figure in the Maroons sheds post-match.

“It’s obviously disappointing. I haven’t had too much time to reflect on it so I haven’t got much to say,” Walker said.

“It’s just footy - I’ve done it a thousand times and I love what I do.

“It’s a pretty big occasion and I loved every minute of it - it’s been an awesome week. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t finish it off.

Walker did his best to get the win with those two try assists, a line-break assist, a forced dropout, a dummy-half run breaking two tackles and 16 kicks for 462 metres.

While the young Roosters half thought it was nothing special, Queensland coach Billy Slater had other thoughts.

“I thought he was great. The longer the week (in camp) went on, the more I felt really confident that he’d play like that,” Slater said.

“He’s a clever little player – he’s tough. He dives into the team things and then he brings his game and unlocks players.

“We saw that (Wednesday night) so I’m looking forward to him getting some more opportunities and playing some more footy at this level.”

Walker posed a threat every time he touched the ball, especially his trademark kicking game.

“I just had a lot of belief. The coaching staff knew I would just go out there and play by game, back what I see. They instil that confidence in me.

“I wasn’t going out there thinking of early kicks. I was just thinking about doing my best for the team.”

There was a little weirdness playing against his club captain James Tedesco as the pair feed off each other so well for the Roosters.

“Pretty much just forget who’s wearing that jersey. It was a little different during the week.

“When you’re out there in footy you play against teammates you used to have all the time.”

Conspiracy theorists felt Tedesco would tip-up the Blues team on Walker’s tactics and moves.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do (in a game) so I don’t know how he’s going to know,” Walker said.

The game turned with the Kalyn Ponga send-off in the 57th minute with Queensland leading 20-6.

Walker was the first man in the tackle on NSW winger Tolu Koula, with Ponga coming in over the top.

“I sort of went low so I didn’t see what happened. Things like that happen in footy. There’s no point looking back on it now – just focus what’s ahead of us," he said.

But it did make the final 23 minutes extra stressful defending a man down and watching the Blues pile on three tries.

“The whole game is hard whether there’s 12 or 13. I’m really proud to be a Queenslander,” Walker said.

“We showed up, we fought, we didn’t make excuses, and we almost got it.”