New Blues halfback Nicho Hynes must be prepared to have his defence tested during State of Origin Game One.
Hynes, who will don the famous Sky Blue No.7 jersey for the first time this Wednesday, will be the latest in a long line of playmakers to have a heap of Origin traffic directed their way.
Gorden Tallis, who captained the Maroons seven times, said the Cronulla halfback will be a major target of Queensland’s attack at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, particularly given a perceived weakness in his defence.
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“The rumour last year was that defensively he (Hynes) doesn’t move laterally. There’s no doubt if Reece Walsh gets on him – you saw what Reece Walsh did to Penrith in the Grand Final – so there’s no doubt they’re (Queensland) going to run plays at him,” Tallis said on NRL 360 on Monday night.
“There’s no doubt they’re going to run traffic (at him),”
During last year’s Grand Final, Walsh broke the line twice and had 10 tackle busts, with much of his joy coming against Penrith’s right edge defence, the side of the field Hynes will be defending on in Game One.
Hynes will not be the only half, or player, to have added defensive duties in the Origin arena, with former NSW Blues representative Braith Anasta adding: “everyone gets targeted (in Origin)”
So much so, Tallis remembers one series when his former teammate and Origin great Darren Lockyer “missed 30 tackles.”
The Daily Telegraph’s Brent Read said of Hynes if Queensland “don’t go at him early, and often, they’re mad.”
However veteran journalist Phil Rothfield said he was “not the slightest bit concerned” about Hynes’ defence which “has been outstanding this year.”
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Among NRL halfbacks, only Canterbury’s Drew Hutchinson has made more tackles than Hynes’ 226 this season.
Yet, despite this volume of defensive work, six No.7’s have missed more than his 25 tackles, including Maroons hooker Ben Hunt and NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai.
Rothfield reminded the panel of Cronulla’s opening game of the 2024 NRL season, away against the New Zealand Warriors, when Hynes “saved a couple of tries close to the line (and) they (Cronulla) came from behind to win,” Rothfield said.
Rothfield noted “there’s no great playmaker who does not get targeted in Origin.”
Nathan Cleary, the man Hynes is replacing in the NSW No. 7 role for this series, saw increased traffic during his debut Origin campaign in 2018.
In that series, won 2-1 by the Blues, Cleary averaged 26 tackles and 3.5 missed tackles, including 29 tackles in Game Three, the equal-second most he’d made in his career at that point.
By comparison, Cleary averaged 15 tackles and 1.5 missed tackles per game for Penrith during the 2018 NRL season.