James Tedesco is not sure whether he will be punted again if the Penrith fullback is fit for State of Origin II after being passed over in favor of Dylan Edwards at first.
When Edwards had a quad injury, Tedesco was brought back into the NSW squad, but he did so without a “C” next to his name. Despite being limited to 12 players for 72 minutes, the star Roosters player nevertheless produced a captain’s knock, scoring a try and covering 207 meters of ground.
The availability of Edwards remains unclear, making the fullback call again one of the most contentious for Blues coach Michael Maguire.
“I accepted it, that Dyl was going to play [originally],” Tedesco said after his side’s 38-10 loss at Accor Stadium.
“Dyl’s been playing awesome, he definitely deserves a chance in the Origin arena.
“I was happy for him. But sometimes the footy world can be pretty crazy.
It’s really disheartening for him not to get a chance, but it gave me an opportunity to come to the camp and I was sort of lucky I’ve played with most of these guys before and I’ve been in camp a lot of them before.
“It was pretty easy to come into camp and get along with them.
Should Tedesco retain his spot, he will become NSW’s third most capped player, equalling Paul Gallen with 24 games.
“That is pretty cool,” he said.
“To play just one Origin game is special, but to play the amount I have in the fullback jersey when there’s plenty of superstars in NSW playing fullback.
