NSW centre Josh Morris was asleep in Canberra when he got the call to pack his bags and rush back to Sydney on Sunday to rejoin the Blues side after Josh Dugan's elbow forced him out of Game One at late notice.
Having been cut from the original 19-man squad after two training sessions Morris said he had to get out of the head-space of playing an NRL game to refocus on Wednesday's Origin series opener and had to ask Blues halves Adam Reynolds and James Maloney if he'd missed anything important once he rejoined the team at Homebush after a mad dash on Sunday.
"I was still asleep in bed so it was a bit of a shock then it was just a mad scramble from Canberra to the airport to Belmore then to my house then back to Homebush," Morris said.
"It was a bit of a mad dash but I got back into camp and the boys were happy to see me.
"It's a hard one, obviously the mindset that I was going in to play Canberra and was ready to go and then that all changed. The mindset had to go back in and focus on this game and getting in the right head space."
Morris denied it hurt his preparation though, given he had the experience of having been a late call-up for his Origin debut.
Back in 2009 when Craig Wing was a late withdrawal Morris was called onto the NSW bench in jersey 19, which he said has served him in good stead over the past week.
"It happened to me in my first ever Origin so it's something that has happened before to me and I used that as a bit of experience there," he said.
"Just when I got back into camp, I just asked questions and made sure there wasn't anything I missed out on and I thought me and Adam [Reynolds] in defence tonight worked really well together so I'm happy with that."
Morris was on hand for all bar one of the Blues' training sessions, but said he would have been more involved in the early ones if he'd been expecting to play.
"I probably didn't partake in them as much as what I normally would. Obviously 'Duges' and 'Jenko' [Michael Jennings] needed to do their fair bit of work but I did enough and saw enough when I came back into camp. Anything I missed as I said I asked questions and made sure I was across [it]."
Morris also extended his sympathy towards Dugan, the man who had initially taken Morris's usual place at right centre for NSW.
"I feel for Duges. Obviously he's a big part of this team and a big part of the squad. He sent us a message of good luck and I really feel for him but he'll probably do as much rehab as he can to get back for Game Two or Game Three," Morris said.
