Warriors back star for higher honours

By Alex Powell

In the wake of Saturday’s 34-4 humbling of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Warriors coach Andrew Webster has backed hooker Wayde Egan to take his game to another level, and contend for the New South Wales No 9 jersey.

Egan, 27, has become a key member of the Warriors’ spine under Webster, and cemented himself comfortably as the first-choice hooker since his arrival at the club from the Penrith Panthers in 2020.

So far, Egan has made 83 appearances for the Warriors, and is currently signed on until the end of 2025.

This season, the Warriors’ only two defeats have come in Egan’s absence.

In round one, the hooker played just 34 minutes before leaving the field injured in a 16-12 defeat to the Cronulla Sharks. A week later, the Warriors fell to a 30-26 loss to the Melbourne Storm, with Egan unavailable.

Without doubt, the Warriors will face a fight to keep Egan on their books beyond that, but for now, Webster knows exactly how good his rake is.

On Saturday, as the Warriors snapped a losing streak against the Rabbitohs that dated back to 2018, Egan was at the forefront of his side’s best win of the year so far.

In 80 minutes, he made a team-high 39 tackles, threw two line-break assists and 127 passes, and had a hand in two tries to halfback Shaun Johnson, thanks to putting the pair of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Te Maire Martin into open space.

Most impressively, though, was that Egan comprehensively outplayed opposite Damien Cook, who has more or less had a stranglehold on the New South Wales hooker spot since his debut in 2018.

Api Koroisau (Penrith Panthers) and Reece Robson (North Queensland Cowboys) will also be in contention for New South Wales, when State of Origin begins in June.

Blues coach Michael Maguire is a known fan of Egan, and last year told The Big League Podcast of his attempts to get him to switch allegiance from Australia to New Zealand.

But asked about Egan’s representative prospects later this year, Webster made no bones about where his hooker should fit into the picture for Maguire.

“He’s not playing for the Kiwis,” joked Webster. “The next step is Origin for him, for sure.

“I’ve said it to Wayde, I just believe he should be an Origin player. You can’t be that talented and that good [and not play Origin].

“We’ve got a style of play we put around him so that he can do that, show his talent. He’s exceptional.

“I don’t think you get two better New South Wales nines who’ll ask so many questions of Queensland than Api and Wayde.

“They’re two guys who ask so many questions. They make other people look good. If they start [the opposition] worrying about other people, that’s when Wayde takes opportunities.

“He’s just brilliant.”

The Warriors haven’t had a State of Origin player since 2017, when prop Jacob Lillyman was part of the Queensland side. Reece Walsh was also called-up by the Maroons in 2021, but was ruled out by injury.

Warriors captain Tohu Harris knows what makes a good hooker, after sharing a dressing room with Queensland and Australia great Cameron Smith for five seasons at the Melbourne Storm.

And for the skipper, the similarities between Egand and Smith are evident.

“He’s just so calm,” added Harris. “He doesn’t get flustered in his decision making.

“When they’re like that, they’ve got so much time to make the right decision. When he does pull the trigger or make a decision, the execution of the pass - whether it’s wide to Shaun [Johnson] or a little short one into a gap - he very rarely gets it wrong.

“The decision making and the execution of it, I guess, is very similar.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission