Queensland legend Brent Tate says the Maroons will have their work cut out for them in containing the NRL’s form player, Tom Trbojevic, during Origin II.
Trbojevic is in imperious form at club level and helped himself to three tries in New South Wales’ Game One win earlier this month.
Tate says the boys from north of the Tweed will be “shaking” at the prospect of another Tommy Turbo onslaught in the second game of the series this Sunday.
“We’ve got a huge task at hand,” Tate said on Monday night’s episode of NRL Tonight.
“The form of Tommy Turbo alone … I’d be shaking in my boots if I was the Queensland coach, Paul Green. His form is just unbelievable.”
As prolific as Trbojevic was in Game One, his partner in the centres, Latrell Mitchell, proved almost as deadly, crossing the stripe for two tries of his own.
Asked whether he had any advice for Maroons centres Dane Gagai and Kurt Capewell in playing opposite Mitchell and Trbojevic, Tate was almost lost for words.
“I would be afraid, very afraid. Those two guys are in unbelievable form,” he said with a laugh.
“One thing you have to do if you’re Gagai and Kurt Capewell, you’ve just got to be aggressive. You’ve got to get up on them and try and limit their time.
“Every time you go into a tackle with those two, you have to go in wanting to crease them and fold them in half because if you don’t, you, more often than not, end up on your backside.
“That’s the attitude they’re going to need to have come Sunday night.”
Tate’s candid admission comes after Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans conceded that the Maroons “don’t have the answers yet” to stopping the barnstorming centres in blue.
“How do you stop them? We don’t have the answers yet do we but I believe we will when we get into camp,” he said on Sunday night.
“They are playing ad lib and they are playing off the back of momentum.
“There are ways we can stop that momentum. There are things we didn’t do in the first game that I think will help us in the second game.”
Compounding the Maroons’ woes, Kalyn Ponga and Harry Grant have been ruled out through injury bringing seven-game rookie Reece Walsh and Dragons veteran Andrew McCullough into the line-up.
Despite the changes, Tate says he is confident the Maroons will turn up in Game Two with a point to prove and will use past contests to inspire them.
“It’s not the first time that Queensland are going to go into a match complete underdogs and not having a team that’s going to compete on paper with New South Wales,” he said.
“It’s going to be a huge task for Queensland but our history has been built on these sorts of things.”