Gidley ready to make way for Idris - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Gidley ready to make way for Idris

By David Beniuk 18/05/2010 05:56:25 PM Comments (0)

NSW captain Kurt Gidley is ready to spend part of State of Origin I at hooker to help get giant teenager Jamal Idris into the Blues backline in the ANZ Stadium showdown.

Gidley was selected at fullback for the May 26 series opener against Queensland but appears the most likely to make way for the 115kg Idris when the Canterbury centre comes off the bench.

Coach Craig Bellamy said after naming the side on Monday night that shifting Gidley to hooker or the halves, winger Jarryd Hayne to fullback and centre Timana Tahu to the wing was an option.

Gidley's utility value is such that he wore the No.14 for Australia in this month's Test against New Zealand, while Hayne's stellar rise has come in the No.1 jersey at Parramatta.

Asked if he would be happy to shift from fullback to accommodate Idris, Gidley told AAP: "For sure. Obviously starting at fullback is the main priority and I'll be starting there.

"I enjoy playing fullback but we'll just have to see the way the game pans out.

"I guess that's a thing we need to sit down and discuss with Belly through the week.

"It would certainly be good to see Jamal come off the bench and have a big impact in the game because he's a big, physical man."

Idris, the bolter in the Blues side, said he was preparing for any eventuality, including the possibility of being pitched into the ferocious forward battle.

"If they do, I'll give it a crack. I'm not going to say no," he said.

"I'm happy playing whatever they want me to play."

Utility Luke Lewis, who has played Origin in both the backs and forwards, said Idris would also handle either role.

"Jamal Idris is a man mountain, and everyone is saying he can only play centres, but I think he could a job anywhere on the field," Lewis said.

"He is just that big and that talented."

Tahu, meanwhile, will undergo intensive physio in the next two days in an attempt to prove his fitness for Origin I.

The dual international, who has been selected for his first Origin game since 2006, has an ankle injury and will be rested from training on Wednesday before a decision on whether he will play is made later in the week.

Tahu picked up the injury in the NSW City-Country match 10 days ago and aggravated it in Monday night's 19-12 win by Parramatta over Manly.

"It's a bit sore," Tahu told reporters on Tuesday.

"Parramatta medical staff nursed me through the week but it's the same again, I'm back to square one.

"My joint's a bit sore but we'll see what happens after two days.

"After the Country game, for the next two days I couldn't walk. I was a bit stiff.

"The (NSW) physio Tony Ayoub's going to do some treatment for the next couple of days and then Craig's going to make a decision from there."

Asked if there was doubt in his mind that he would be there to take on the Maroons, Tahu said: "At the moment, no.

"This is something through the year, every player gets some niggles."

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