NOTHING can ease the pain of Origin's selection axe.
Particularly when the cold blade has inflicted two cuts in as many seasons.
But Trent Merrin will gain significant consolation should his Dragons side upset high-flying South Sydney on Saturday night.
Long before he was dumped for the past two Origin deciders, the Blues prop experienced his first bitter taste of rejection at
Redfern.
As a
Souths junior who dreamed of wearing the cardinal and myrtle, Merrin cannot forget being overlooked for local representative teams while current Rabbitohs such as Adam Reynolds, Eddy Pettybourne, Jason Clark and Nathan Peats all made the grade.
And that's why the 22-year-old Merrin - who missed the first Dragons-Rabbitohs encounter in round 11 - always rates this clash as personal.
"They didn't want me," he told The Daily Telegraph. "It was always a goal of mine to make those sides but I never had any luck with them.
"
I still wanted to play for Souths even when I moved down here (as a teenager).
"When I made SG Ball (with Illawarra) I used the snubs as motivation ... to resent them and try and make a good career.
"It was unreal the first time I played them. I'd waited for a long time to go up against them.
"I wanted to rub it in their face a bit and I think I won man of the match.
"It's a game I really love playing.
"You look forward to playing the team you grew up around and against a lot of the players I grew up with."
Two tremendous post-Origin efforts have Merrin primed to confront Sam Burgess, Dave Taylor and company at ANZ Stadium.
First he responded to the Origin omission with a barnstorming game in Canberra that finished with 153m, 30 tackles and three offloads.
Then came last weekend's match-winning try against Cronulla.
