Wade Graham will be robbed of his maiden Origin appearance if he is charged with a careless high tackle on North Queensland's Johnathan Thurston on Monday night.
NSW coach Laurie Daley resisted making wholesale changes for game two at Suncorp Stadium, calling Graham in to replace the injured Boyd Cordner as the only change to the Blues line-up.
However Graham is in danger of being rubbed out of the match after collecting Thurston with a high tackle in the second half of their win against the premiers, carrying 50 per cent loading for a similar incident on Cowboys centre Justin O'Neill in last year's semi-final.
Graham, who also has 28 carryover points to his name, has waited nine seasons to make his State of Origin debut, getting the nod ahead of St George Illawarra's Tyson Frizell.
But if he is charged by the match review committee on Tuesday morning, loading for his prior offence and carry over points will ensure he misses the chance to represent the Blues on June 22, even if he takes the early plea.
Dragons fullback Josh Dugan, who was a late withdrawal from game one, has been overlooked for selection despite being touch and go to prove he has overcome the elbow injury he suffered against South Sydney in round 11.
Despite getting just 10 minutes off the bench in his debut in game one, Manly's Dylan Walker has been recalled as the Blues utility, edging out Bryce Cartwright and Jack Bird, who will both join the squad in camp as the two development players named.
"Wade deserves it," Daley said of the 25-year-old Graham.
"Obviously he's been around for a while and is playing in a really good team. He plays on the left side of the field and we wanted to go with a specialist that is used to playing left side. That's how it worked out. He is different type of player to Boyd but he will do a really good job for us, I'm sure.
"He won't be overawed. The fact is he has been around a while yet is still relatively young (25 years old). He has played a lot of games and plays tough. You need that requirement when you are playing in Origin. Wade has played 150, 160 games now so if he's ever going to be ready, he will be ready now."
Canterbury's Josh Morris has retained his place in the line up at right centre, with Dugan's inability to do contact work at training in the lead up costing the Test centre his position in the team.
Asked if Dugan was considered, Daley said: "No, he wasn't considered, It was one of those ones where he wouldn't be able to do contact, so, no, he wasn't picked."
Walker was the star of the show against Penrith at Brookvale Oval on Sunday, scoring two tries in a losing team as the Sea Eagles capitulated in the second half. The performance consolidated his place in the NSW team as the utility off the bench, despite external pressure on Daley to go for Penrith's Cartwright or Cronulla's Bird.
"He showed what he can do on Sunday at Brookvale Oval," Daley said of Walker. "We have every faith in him. We have a role for him to play there. he deserves another crack."
Despite only scoring one try and rarely troubling the Maroons in game one, Daley believes he will reap the benefits of keeping the core of the squad together for the must-win game at The Cauldron known as Suncorp Stadium.
"There was plenty of criticism of the side but they gave their all and we can all be proud of that," Daley said.
"No doubt though we need to be better in certain areas which I think we will be. It was a completely new team for game one and I thought we put in a very strong performance, given it was our first time together.
"You'd expect to grow as the series goes on. We are coming up against a Queensland side that has played a lot footy together and they know what they are doing. One of the things we need to be able to do is build and mould a team and be careful how we do it. That is part of the reason there aren't many changes."
NSW TEAM FOR GAME TWO
1. Matt Moylan, 2. Josh Mansour, 3. Michael Jennings, 4. Josh Morris, 5. Blake Ferguson, 6. James Maloney, 7. Adam Reynolds, 8. Aaron Woods, 9. Robbie Farah, 10. James Tamou, 11. Josh Jackson, 12. Wade Graham, 13. Paul Gallen. Interchange: 14. Dylan Walker, 15. Greg Bird, 16. David Klemmer, 17. Andrew Fifita. Development players: Bryce Cartwright, Jack Bird.
This story originally appeared on www.smh.com.au
