Queensland captain Cameron Smith says NSW five-eighth Todd Carney will be one of a number of Blues players whose games could fall apart if they are pressured during the State of Origin decider.
After an ordinary game one, Carney was far more influential in the Sydney match but he’ll have a target on his head in the Suncorp Stadium finale on Wednesday with the Maroons well aware of his rocks or diamonds reputation.
“Toddy’s a great player and he’s in great form this year but it’s a different environment playing (Origin) at Suncorp in front of 50,000 Queenslanders giving the Blues hell,” said Maroons skipper Cameron Smith.
“If you apply a bit of pressure to those players they can fall into bad habits.
“We have to make sure we’re doing our job with the football first and then when the opportunities in defence present themselves to put pressure on those certain players we’ll do that.”
Carney admitted nerves got the better of him before Origin I in Melbourne which lacks the in-your-face venom at Suncorp Stadium where fans are closer to the action.
Stuart will be hoping Queensland don’t repeat their first 40 minutes of last year’s series decider when they farewelled skipper Darren Lockyer on the back of a near flawless first half of controlled football in which they completed their first 20 sets without an error to lead 24-0.
This time around it’s prop Petero Civoniceva’s send off and a similar display would make it difficult for NSW to keep the sell out crowd out of the game.
Smith conceded keeping Carney and Mitchell Pearce together for the opening two games had paid dividends for the Blues in Sydney.
“In the past they’ve tended to switch their forward pack and probably the biggest thing (to get right) was their halves pairing,” he said.
“We’ve seen this year how Johnathan (Thurston) and Cooper (Cronk) have had to work on their games to try and gel together.
“Having the same two blokes in the seven and six has probably helped their game.”
Smith, who is playing his 27th Origin, said it would be special if he could lift the winner’s shield up in front of Queensland fans.
“It’d be great. I’ve had the opportunity to do it once (2008 when captain Darren Lockyer was out of the series) before but that was down in Sydney,” he said.
“I think three quarters of the crowd had left when I lifted it up so I was only lifting it in front of about 300 people,” he added with a laugh.
“I’m not really thinking about it to be honest.
“If you start thinking about the result or what you’re going to do after the full time siren you lose focus on what you need to do when you run out onto the field.
“Pressure-wise I feel great.
“I feel comfortable in my role as captain and I know there’s plenty of belief in the side that if we go out and all do our jobs we can win the game.”
