Nawaqanitawase named in Blues team after injury to Crichton

Blues coach Laurie Daley has named Roosters winger Mark Nawaqanitawase in his Origin II squad after Stephen Crichton was ruled out injured.

Crichton was originally named in Daley’s team on Monday afternoon, but an ongoing shoulder injury has sidelined him for game two in Melbourne on June 17.

“After the game last night, so around 7pm I spoke to Critter [Crichton], and he’s been carrying an AC joint injury, and he’s a bit banged up, so he wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of training, and in particular contact [training], which is always a concern,” Daley said.

Nawaqanitawase will be in jersey 19 as outside back cover for NSW as they attempt to wrap up the series at the MCG.

Daley said picking Nawaqanitawase was a no-brainer, following his performance for the Kangaroos last year and hat trick for the Roosters against the Raiders on Friday night.

“I relayed the message and he was very excited, so they’re always good phone calls to have,” Daley said.

“Mark played for Australia last year, and has got a good rapport with the guys, and I know how much he wants to play for NSW. So, yeah, it was an easy decision for us.”

Penrith centre Casey McLean – who played 23 minutes in the Origin I victory after Tolu Koula’s concussion – will replace Crichton in the centres, joining Koula, Kotoni Staggs and Brian To’o in the back line.

“What Casey did in game one was terrific, coming off the bench, and someone that probably wasn’t going to get any game time, but was thrust in, and then to handle it as well as he did was pretty special,” Daley said.

Daley also said he was confident Parramatta halfback Mitchell Moses would be fit for game two, despite missing his team’s Monday clash with the Bulldogs.

Moses was picked in Daley’s squad but suffered a hamstring injury in Origin camp.

“I’ve got full confidence in Mitch, he’s ticking every box, so you just don’t hold someone back thinking that something may happen,” Daley said.

“You’ve got to be confident enough to run with it, and we’ll see what happens, but I’m very confident that he’ll be right to play, and you’ve got a guy like Ethan Strange there, who was terrific in game one, so if something did happen [to Moses] during the game, he just goes straight into that position.”

More to come