Origin battle: Hayne v Slater

They are two of the most polarising superstars in the NRL and are destined to be constantly locked in a head-to-head battle; Billy the ‘greatest fullback’ Slater and Jarryd the Hayne plane. From Grand Finals to State of Origin, they have seemingly been at each other for over six years. Both have the match-winning potential to change a game in an instant and often feature in highlight reels. Slater has the blinding pace, Hayne the ability to break tackles almost at will.

Check out the Origin Teams brought to you by Powerade.

It is true that fullbacks rarely come in direct contact with each other in a match, but their head-to-head contest still goes a long way to deciding the outcome of a game. Instead of directly locking horns, they take turns in one-upmanship; kick returns, probing runs, goal-line defence and getting involved in try-scoring plays. If there are points scored, these two are usually involved.

While Queensland has won seven series in a row, not much separates this pair statistically. Slater has 19 appearances, Hayne 16. Both have 13 linebreaks. On average they make comparable runs, tackles and missed tackles. Hayne averages 30 metres more per game and has 34 more tackle breaks. Slater has four more tries, four more linebreak assists and makes more kick return metres.

Remarkably, Slater has 36 errors to Hayne’s 11.This can largely be attributed to Slater playing more games at fullback, with Hayne playing a lot of his Origin career on the wing. Hayne has only played two of his 16 games in his favoured fullback position, Slater has played 14.

It would not surprise on Wednesday if either or both crossed the tryline.

LEGEND: Mins=minutes | Mtrs = Metres made | Tcks = Tackles | Miss = Missed Tackles | Inef = Ineffective tackles | KR = Kick Returns | KRM = Kick Return Metres| LB = Linebreak | LBA Linebreak assists | TryA = Try Assists | Off = Offloads | TBrk = Tacklebreaks