Webster’s call on State Of Origin stars comes up trumps for Warriors

By Alex Powell

While the Brisbane Broncos’ decision to rest their State of Origin stars came back to haunt them, Warriors coach Andrew Webster’s decision to play his turned out to be a masterstroke in Saturday’s 32-16 victory.

Having not had any State of Origin representatives for seven years, the 2024 NRL season has seen two Warriors players win selection for their state.

Even though he’s yet to play a minute for New South Wales, Mitch Barnett has been involved in both of Michael Maguire’s Blues camps, while Kurt Capewell made his Origin return for Billy Slater’s Queensland in last week’s second match.

But as the trio of Payne Haas, Reece Walsh and Pat Carrigan all sat out Saturday’s clash at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium, Webster made the call to start both Capewell and Barnett.

And despite both players’ weeks with the Warriors being disrupted by their representative duties, neither Capewell nor Barnett took a backwards step against Brisbane.

Off the back of last weekend’s record-equalling 66-6 loss to the Gold Coast Titans, though, Webster couldn’t afford to leave his Origin representatives on the sidelines.

Speaking post-match, the Warriors coach emphasised how pleased he was that his two representatives stood up as their season approaches make-or-break.

“Obviously Capey had played Origin,” said Webster. “He didn’t play a huge amount of minutes, but he had to do a fair bit.

“To step on the field and play one minute of Origin I’m sure isn’t easy. So we just felt like if we got him out there starting, that was going to be the best thing for the team and himself.

“That meant Barney had to go to the middle. We all know Barney’s pretty good at that.

“That was probably the only change, everything else was pretty seamless. We were pretty open minded to make that decision after we watched Origin.

“I’m just super proud of Capey wanting to come back and play. He was really good in his preparation.

“Barney obviously was away the whole time, and then he came back and he was outstanding.”

Capewell in particular stood tall against his former side. In 66 minutes, the 30-year-old made 23 tackles and broke two tackles on offence from his nine runs for a total of 84 metres.

That came off the back of 37 minutes for Queensland, including a stint at centre for the injured Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, where Capewell made 12 further tackles.

Meanwhile, Barnett’s evening consisted of 72 minutes, 32 tackles, two offloads, eight tackle breaks, 184 metres run, one try assist – and even 23 kicking metres – as he returned to the front row.

And while the 30-year-old wasn’t forced to back up after playing in midweek, 18th man duties were hardly ideal preparation for Barnett.

What’s more, Capewell’s return allowed Barnett to return to prop after playing for the last five weeks as an edge forward.

For now, though, Webster will still have to get through another representative week, when Queensland host New South Wales for the series decider on July 17.

Two days later, the Warriors face a difficult trip to face the Raiders in Canberra, potentially without Capewell and Barnett.

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