Manly monster George Rose revealed the Indigenous All Stars forwards set themselves a personal challenge to lay a winning platform for their brilliant backs at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
They delivered against the more fancied NRL All Stars representative pack led by Origin and Test props James Tamou and Ben Hannant and world-class hooker Cameron Smith.
The beneficiaries of the Indigenous forward pack’s mission were Canterbury fullback Ben Barba and Canberra winger Reece Robinson, who celebrated with hat-tricks.
Rose said the challenge of winning the battle against such a world-class pack got his forwards fired up.
“It was an exciting challenge for all of us,” said Rose, penalised for the season’s first shoulder charge of 2013 during the 32-6 win.
Rose said the forwards got together during the week and talked about the fact they were up against four or five of the best front rowers in the world.
“You want to test yourself against the best and I think we did a good job tonight.
“I was very proud of the boys. It’s challenges like that that you play footy for.”
Greg Bird as usual provided the aggression in the middle while Andrew Fifita’s size was damaging along with Joel Thompson who displayed great pace to almost run down Jarryd Hayne in a 60-metre dash in the first half.
Gold Coast giant Ryan James, one of the few players at 121kg who outstrips Rose on the scales, was brutal at times with his charges up the middle.
“He played a few years ago coming off a knee reconstruction and was one of our best front-rowers,” recalled Daley.
“He’s got plenty of aggression, he’s a big guy and he’s hard to handle.
“He is someone who will get better the more football he plays and he’s got a big future if he keeps playing like that.”
Daley, who makes his Origin coaching debut for NSW later this year, did a great job interchanging his forwards and using his bigger outside backs to give them a spell at crucial times.
“We rotated our forwards a lot through the middle and they just kept turning up,” said Daley.
“They were great defensively. We all know they can all carry the ball but at times big fellas get a bit tired and maybe not do the clean up work in the middle.
“It’s a good sign when they go back to their clubs because they looked fit and ready to go and they were awesome.”