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'I was watching union more than league': Schoolboy rugby star's rise to Origin debut

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Queensland have Wally Lewis to thank for Murray Taulagi, the winger who grew up in New Zealand with dreams of becoming an All Black.

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The 23-year-old didn’t even play rugby league until he was 16, when spotted by North Queensland recruiters after blitzing it as Brisbane State High School’s rugby fullback.

He’d moved across the Tasman from Auckland with the rest of his family aged 11, on the advice of big brother JJ, a former Queensland Reds Super Rugby player.

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And while he quickly credits JJ for his skills and confidence on a football field, Taulagi says the decision to chase a State of Origin debut came back to one moment, and another – more illustrious – BSHS graduate.

“One day I had Wally walk into one of our assemblies,” Taulagi said. “To see him there was unreal and after that I was sort of just trying to follow his path.

“Growing up I was watching union more than league. I did dream of playing for the All Blacks but also supported Queensland.

“It was a tough decision (to switch codes) but I’m grateful I made it, and I grew up more over here in Australia and played most of my footy here, so thought it was the right thing to do for myself.”

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Taulagi beat Brisbane’s Corey Oates to the wing spot vacated by the injured Xavier Coates, with fellow Cowboys flyer Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (head) also injured.

He doesn’t boast Coates’ aerial threat, instead relying more on powerful running and footwork to score nine tries this year and provide the attacking drive that has him ranked 11th for run metres and 14th for offloads in the NRL.

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It was enough to convince Billy Slater to opt for Taulagi, despite the Queensland coach admitting he’d never seen Oates in better form.

Being part of the extended squad for the Sydney victory and playing outside club teammate Valentine Holmes will also help a winger who expects NSW to target him.

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“And we’ve got Billy here, Johno (Thurston); a lot of experience and I think this week they’ll be able to help me out with all the pressure,” he said.

“The bunch of guys is a really good group, really close, and they’ll be able to look out for me on Sunday.”

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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