Origin's confusing origins
May 20, 2008 - 8:13AM
They started their football careers at clubs like the Murwillumbah Mustangs (Anthony Laffranchi) and the Dalby Devils (Carl Webb).
Not all of them have origins that coincide with the jerseys they will wear in Origin I.
But it won't matter a damn when rugby league's greatest rivalry boils into action on Wednesday night.
You'll get clobbered no matter where you come from, provided you're wearing the other mob's jersey.
Greg Inglis is perhaps the most talented athlete on the field - who else could have performed that Nureyev-like dive over the dead ball line and scooped the ball back for Mark Gasnier to score against New Zealand?
But Inglis also has the most confusing Origin pedigree.
He plays for the only Victorian club in the NRL, but he was born at Kempsey on the mid-north coast of NSW and learnt his junior footy at nearby Bowraville.
Which should by rights have him wearing the sky-blue jersey on Wednesday night.
But he then joined Norths in Brisbane, which gives Queensland enough of a claim over him to send him out in the Maroons No.5 jersey.
Inglis's Melbourne Storm team mates Israel Folau and Michael Crocker might also be wearing blue. Both were born in Sydney, but Folau passed through the same Brisbane feeder club as Inglis and Crocker's claims on Bananabender citizenship date back to his days with Arthur Beetson's old club at Redcliffe.
A total of nine players in Origin I were born outside the state they are representing - six Queenslanders and three New South Welshmen.
Of the other Queenslanders, Karmichael Hunt was born in Auckland, Petero Civoniceva in Suva, and Sam Thaiday, whose heart lies in his ancestral home on the Torres Strait island of Yam, drew his first breath in Sydney.
The NSW team is more true blue, though their new halfback Peter Wallace, who plays for the Broncos, was born in Melbourne, Ryan Hoffman hails from the ACT and his second-row partner Willie Mason was born in Auckland.
According to league statistician David Middleton, Inglis is the most contentious of the Origin migrants.
"Strictly speaking, he should be a NSW rep," says Middleton.
"He played his first football with Bowraville and then his first senior football over the age of 16 was with Hunter Sports High in the Arrive Alive Cup, which is considered to be a senior competition.
"He then joined Norths in Brisbane whereupon he was claimed by Queensland."
The series remains amazingly close, with both sides winning 12 series with two drawn.
Queensland edges the Blues 40-39 in individual wins, with two draws, and has scored 223 tries to 219.
But NSW has scored nine more points - 1,284 to 1,275.
