'Me and Trell will be going after him': Gus's warning for Maroons rookie
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Blues forward Angus Crichton was among the Roosters team-mates to congratulate Robert Toia on his Maroons call-up, but he warned the rookie centre would face a baptism of fire in his Origin debut.
“Me and Latrell will be going after him, for sure,” Crichton said ahead of Wednesday night’s State of Origin series opener at Suncorp Stadium.
“That’s the game we play and as much as I love him and respect him, he knows that I’ll be coming for him.”
After playing just 10 NRL games for Sydney Roosters, Toia is the least experienced Maroons player since Ben Ikin was selected in 1995 with just four premiership matches under his belt for Gold Coast Seagulls.
NSW prop Payne Haas also debuted in 2019 after just 10 NRL matches but while the Broncos star plays in the middle he didn’t have to mark up on one of the game’s superstars in Mitchell.
“Latrell has just got that confidence and a bit of swagger about him. He just wants the ball, wants to score, wants to win,” Crichton said.
“He is a beast, you can’t coach what he has got and I can’t wait to line up with him again.”
Crichton and Mitchell will line up on NSW’s left edge, in between star winger Brian To'o and five-eighth Mitchell Moses.
Just 20-years-of-age, Toia has been a revelation for the Roosters this season but team-mates insist he is no overnight sensation.
“He’s just a really good young kid, he's gone through a few injuries early in his career, I think he did his ACL twice, so coming back from that showed a lot of resilience,” Crichton said.
“He's worked really hard to get back in the position and when I heard the whispers [about Origin] I texted him straight away.
“As a kid you dream your whole life to be in this arena and he is only 20 years old so to at that age, to be making your debut and starting in the centres for Queensland is huge. I am so happy for him but come game time … “
Roosters and Blues team-mate Connor Watson said only injuries had held Toia back from making his mark in the game sooner.
“I'm so happy for him, he's been awesome for us this year,” Watson said. “He's only 10 games in, but for the last few years that he's been with us you can just see how much talent he's got.
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Two for Toia
“I always thought that he'd be an Origin player in the future, but for it to come so quickly it's pretty unreal for him.”
Watson said that Toia had impressed from a young age with his ability to break tackles and attacking skills.
However, he had worked hard on defence this season under Roosters coach Trent Robinson and would not lack confidence playing opposite Mitchell as he had already done so in Round 5.
“We would do edge on edge or 13 v 13 stuff and he's setting up tries and scoring tries from when he was 17 or 18 against the first grade team, but the thing that's impressed me most this year has just been his defence,” Watson said.
“From the start of the year, hearing Robbo talk about their conversations that they had, defence was his main priority. He just wanted to do a really good job on his opposing centres and he's done that all year.”
Match: Maroons v Blues
Game 1 -
home Team
Maroons
away Team
Blues
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
