In an ominous warning for NSW Origin coach Ricky Stuart, Johnathan Thurston says he and new representative halves partner Cooper Cronk have only scratched the surface.
Thurston and Cronk combined brilliantly to guide Australia to a tough 20-12 win over New Zealand on Friday night, and it didn’t take long for man of the match Thurston to turn his attention to the upcoming Origin series.
“I thought we clicked fairly well tonight,” Thurston said of his union with Cronk in the first Test since the retirement of long-time Australian fixture Darren Lockyer.
“Hopefully we can take that combination moving forward and I think the more time we spend together the better we’ll be.
“We’re both dominant at our own clubs but we play the one game plan here and the one game plan that we do play complements both our games and I thought we saw that tonight.”
The Maroons will be searching for a record seventh straight series win when the three-match campaign begins in Melbourne on May 23.
With Cronk’s seamless transition into the starting side and the continued stellar form of fellow Queensland regulars Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and captain Cameron Smith, it’s a dominance that looks set to continue – something Thurston makes no apology for.
“Queensland’s been on the receiving end of that as well through the 80s the 90s with the likes of Freddy (Brad Fittler) and Joey (Andrew Johns) and the like,” Thurston said.
“Queensland’s had its fair share of looking across the border and seeing the world’s best players and I think it’s great to see the shoe on the other foot.”
While happy to feed off it as a Kangaroos teammate on Friday night, NSW skipper Paul Gallen admitted his week in camp with the Queensland-dominated Australian squad had highlighted the enormity of the task the Blues face attempting to win their first series since 2005.
“Me and Luke Lewis were sitting at a table the other night thinking about it – they’re pretty good,” Gallen said.
“It is a bit (daunting).
“There’s been series where they’ve been dominant, just too good, I’ll concede that.
“But certainly in last year’s series there was a big moment in game one where we made an error going away from our game plan and it probably cost us the game.
“We win that, we win Sydney, we’d all be happy.
“I don’t think we’re that far away, but there’s moments in games where they fully capitalise on it and we haven’t.”
And that principally comes down to having the likes of Thurston, Cronk and Smith calling the shots.
“They really complement each other really well,” Smith said of the news halves combination.
“Coops is a very structured type of a half where he’s got an idea of what he wants to do the 80 minutes out on the field and where he wants to attack.
“JT’s a bit more off the cuff … he just sees something in front of him and he demands the ball, that’s why he’s so much of a threat to any side.
“It’s a good mix they’ve got together.”