Josh Morris set to shine in Origin III

Freed from the onerous demands of defending against Greg Inglis, Josh Morris is set for a breakthrough attacking performance in State of Origin III.

Morris’s defensive efforts on Inglis have become the stuff of Origin folklore.

But with the Queensland superstar moving from centre to fullback for Wednesday’s decider in Brisbane, in place of the injured Billy Slater, Morris has a new focus at Suncorp Stadium.

The NSW centre kept Inglis quiet in game one and despite an explosive return to form at the MCG in game two from the South Sydney No.1, it didn’t result in a Queensland victory.

In attack Morris has had a modest impact upon the series so far despite scoring two tries.

In Queensland’s 11-10 win in Sydney in game one he made 53m from six runs. In game two he made just 15m from five runs, in statistics provided by Fox Sports Stats, as opposed to the 127m from 13 runs man of the match NSW’s left centre Michael Jennings made in the Blues 26-18 win at the MCG.

Morris is hoping that will change in the decider.

“Obviously the left side saw plenty of ball in the second game and that worked for them, hopefully we can see a lot of ball this time (on the right),’ Morris said.

Blues prop James Tamou said being free of his defensive shackles could bring out the best in Morris in his 10th Origin encounter.

“I know what you are saying, handling GI is a big job and he saves his energy for that and can’t really focus on his attack,” Tamou said.

“But I think with GI going out the back he has more incentive to do a job offensively and hopefully he will be the difference.

“It has been a while since he has come out of a game with his name in lights and I think he is ready to make a difference there.”

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