NSW coach Brad Fittler has named 11 debutants for State of Origin game one with three St George Illawarra stars included.
Incumbent back-rower Tyson Frizell was chosen alongside new faces Paul Vaughan, who will start from the bench, and Jack de Belin who will start at lock.
Tariq Sims was named as 18th man.
The Dragons were rewarded for an outstanding start to the season where they have been the NRL’s best team, surging to the top of the table.
Euan Aitken and Cameron McInnes, who were believed to be chances to be named at centre and hooker respectively, missed out. The Dragons will also have Ben Hunt playing for Queensland after he was named as the Maroons’ No.7 to replace Cooper Cronk.
Cronulla were snubbed at the selection table, with star back-rower Wade Graham left out after battling injury so far this season. The Sharks will have Valentine Holmes as their only Origin representative in game one.
Fittler described it as one of the most exciting NSW teams in Origin history.
“To me it is at the moment. I think results might determine that for other people how exciting the team is,” Fittler told media at the official team announcement at The Star on Monday night.
“But you’ve got to say it is a team that gets you sitting on the edge of your seat. Week in week out they’ve been fantastic for their clubs.
“I wasn’t concerned about debutants. No doubt we definitely needed some experienced players there. The key was to get the right amount of experienced players. Making sure they were fit as well.
“From the point of view of debutants, these days I don’t think the kids seem to worry as much as we did in the past.
“There was a lot to decide on combinations. There’s a lot of good players playing [well] for their clubs from NSW so I don’t know if any of the coaches before have had that same luxury.
“I spoke to Wade. He’s a good mate of mine and I’ve coached him a few times. There was a couple of tough ones there… you can’t have them all.”
State of Origin 2018 NSW team game one
1. James Tedesco, 2. Tom Trbojevic, 3. Latrell Mitchell, 4. James Roberts, 5. Josh Addo-Carr, 6. James Maloney, 7. Nathan Cleary, 8. David Klemmer, 9. Damien Cook, 10. Reagan Campbell-Gillard, 11. Boyd Cordner ( c ), 12. Tyson Frizell, 13. Jack de Belin. Interchange: 14. Paul Vaughan, 15. Jake Trbojevic, 16. Angus Crichton, 17. Tyrone Peachey. 18. Tariq Sims, 19. Nick Cotric.
