Once the dust had settled after the round two match against the Warriors last weekend, Coach Garth Brennan looked at his phone and in amongst the stack of text messages were two he was eager to read.
Halfback Ash Taylor (hamstring) and prop forward Jarrod Wallace (suspension) had text the coach immediately after the match telling him that they were ready to go and couldn’t wait for the round three match to kick-off.
Both players have differing motivations with Taylor keen to play in front of the Toowoomba faithful whilst Wallace is itching to get out there for his first match of season 2018.
“He’s (Taylor) got a bit of training to do between now and Sunday but we’ll see how he progresses,” Brennan said. “Fingers crossed he’ll be right to go.
“Yeah, he is (keen to play), going back home. He’s keen to play in front of family and friends. I had a text from him after the game and he said he’ll be right for this weekend.
Wallace has been itching to go since Christmas and after a tough training regime, the Origin representative is ready to go.
“I want to ease him into the game, he hasn’t trialled and might be a little underdone,” BrennaN said in relation to his selection on the interchange bench.
“He’s in great shape, he struggled early but he’s ripped, he’s trained really hard and he had his shirt off last week showing it off, which I found a bit disturbing but we’re excited to have him back.
“To have an Origin player come back into the side is important for us and we can’t have players of that calibre on the sidelines.
“I got a text message off him as well so they’re both raring to go.”
