Twitter farce as Josh Reynolds wins place on bench NSW bench
BY:BRENT READ From: The Australian May 31, 2013 12:00AM
AND the winner is ... confusion and embarrassment. After all the toing-and-froing over whether Josh Reynolds or John Sutton should come into the Blues side for the opening game of the State of Origin series, the decision descended into farce late yesterday when the team's governing body - the NSW Rugby League - announced the wrong winner.
As NSW coach Laurie Daley prepared to take his place before the waiting microphones to reveal which of the pair would take Kurt Gidley's place on the interchange bench at ANZ Stadium next week, someone jumped the gun. A television news channel claimed Sutton had won the day.
A bonfire started on Twitter. The NSWRL's Twitter feed announced Sutton. The deluge prompted South Sydney's website to post a story congratulating Sutton. There was one problem - and a big one at that. Daley had actually opted for Reynolds.
Sutton had been sent back to play for South Sydney against Newcastle before rejoining the squad on Sunday as 18th man. Social media went into meltdown. The red-faced NSWRL was forced to offer an apology to Sutton and his family for the mistake.
"Members of the media team read news reports that John had been selected and, with the need to be timely on social media, tweeted the incorrect information," the statement said.
"Once again, we would like to apologise to John and his family, NSW VB Blues fans and South Sydney fans for our error."
The blunder overshadowed the elevation of Reynolds to Origin. Reynolds and Sutton were forced to sweat both on and off the field before Daley put them out of their misery.
The pair trained with the NSW squad yesterday morning in Sydney's eastern suburbs before Daley headed back to the team hotel to consider his decision.
He eventually plumped for Reynolds, although there is no guarantee he will get on the field. Reynolds spent most of yesterday's training session at hooker but Daley said the expectation was that Robbie Farah would play 80 minutes.
"It's amazing, you talk to one guy and then you talk to the other and they get quite emotional," Daley said.
"It's a big decision. We were confident either way and it took us a while to come up with Josh because John had some attributes that we thought we may have been unable to use.
"But to have cover at hooker, and not have too many disruptions if something went wrong with Robbie, in the end swung it in Josh's favour.
"He'll play that type of role where he doesn't know where he'll go on, he doesn't know what time he'll go on or how many minutes he'll get.
"He's just got to be ready.
"The plan is to play Robbie for 80 minutes."
Canterbury coach Des Hasler added: "He won't let anyone down. You all see the way he plays each week."
NSW captain Paul Gallen endorsed the decision, but spoke to Sutton to make sure he would be in camp once his commitments with the Rabbitohs were over.
"Either way, someone was going to be really upset and I feel really sorry for John Sutton," Gallen said.
"The Reynolds thing came a bit out of the blue because Sutto was heavily spoken about.
"He is going to do a great job. He is that type of player, isn't he? He is a terrier-type player and he is going to rip in. He brings a lot of energy. Coming off the bench, he'll do a great job.
"That's his biggest attribute - his competitiveness and energy on the field. That's something you need in Origin."
Daley also moved to ensure Sutton would continue to be part of the squad.
"He was extremely disappointed," Daley said. "You could see it in his face. He's been around for a long time and obviously wanted to play State of Origin. It's never easy telling anyone that news.
"But John will be in camp with us if he comes through the game injury-free this weekend.
"He was disappointed and that's what you want from your players."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...-bench-nsw-bench/story-fnca0von-1226654074347
