{"id":99184,"date":"2021-07-12T20:37:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T20:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=99184"},"modified":"2021-07-12T20:57:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T20:57:03","slug":"what-blues-new-halves-combo-must-do-in-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=99184","title":{"rendered":"What Blues' new halves combo must do in finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

NSW and Parramatta great Peter Sterling<\/a> has backed Eels star Mitch Moses<\/a> to handle the pressure on his State of Origin<\/a> debut on Wednesday, outlining what he and Jack Wighton must do to ensure the Blues continue their momentum.<\/p>\n

While the Blues trounced Queensland by an aggregate score of 76-6 in the first two games of the series, Fittler's side was dealt a number of injury blows ahead of the series decider, particularly in the halves with both Nathan Cleary<\/a> and Jarome Luai ruled out.<\/p>\n

Moses and Wighton will deputise for the Panthers duo<\/a>, and Sterling revealed the pair's biggest priorities heading into Game Three, admitting the transition wouldn't be "seamless".<\/p>\n

"What I do hope is that both Jack and Mitch come in and can play their own game within the confines of what NSW needs and that's not that difficult to do," he told Wide World of Sports' Sterlo's Wrap<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"What it means is that you get your defence right, get your contact right, that's your first priority.<\/p>\n

\"Jarome<\/p>\n

"Your kicking game is way up there and Brad Fittler has mentioned that in pretty much every sentence he's said since Mitch Moses' selection, and Mitch has kicked very, very well for a long while now.<\/p>\n

"The other thing is that it can't just be about getting the ball to [Tom Trbojevic], Latrell [Mitchell] and the outside men, despite the fact that that's where all the damage is done.<\/p>\n

"It can't be just to catch and pass all the time, they've got to play their own games. Mitch and Jack Wighton are very, very good runners of the football, that has got to be a component of it as well."<\/p>\n

"To get all of that right, it's going to take a little bit. They're going to have to go out there and work their way into it.<\/p>\n

"It's fine to work on it on the training paddock, but to go out there under pressure against intense opposition, Phil Gould has said there will be some 'clunkiness', and that's probably a good way [to put it]. We just hope there's not too much of that and they sort it out very, very quickly."<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

Sterling also added that combinations between the pair would be crucial in Game Three.<\/p>\n

"I hope that we do see six-to-seven and seven-to-six in this third Origin because that's been something that has worked very well for Cleary and Luai and the team has responded well to that," he said.<\/p>\n

Moses' selection in Fittler's side has been a long time coming, with the 26-year-old putting together five solid seasons since moving to the Eels back in 2017, and Sterling backed him to shine.<\/p>\n

"He comes in [under] less pressure than it could've been on other occasions if he came in with the series was on the line, but certainly there's pressure on because he knows that all eyes are going to be upon him," he said.<\/p>\n

"I think he'll handle it. I think Mitchell will come in and Brad Fittler will make it very clear what his role is to be and when you've got Andrew Johns, Greg Alexander and Danny Buderus giving advice, he'll have taken that on board as well."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NSW and Parramatta great Peter Sterling has backed Eels star Mitch Moses to handle the pressure on his State of Origin debut on Wednesday, outlining […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99186,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99184\/revisions\/99186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}