WHEN Noah Griffiths was named in the New South Wales under 16s rugby league side to take on Queensland, the Bathurst talent was just hoping to do a good job.
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He did more than that.
The talented halfback scored the final try of the clash at Suncorp Stadium to help the Blues to a 28-14 win over Queensland.
His effort, described by NSWRL as “a show-and-go which would put the icing on the cake of a great victory”, came late in the hour-long contest.
Without doubt, his best quality is his calmness. Nothing seems to rattle him.
- Scott Jones on Noah Griffiths
Earlier it had been much closer, with the fierce rivals locked at 10-all at half-time. The Blues had put themselves under pressure with a a number of handling errors, but they settled in the second stanza and pulled clear of their rivals.
It marked the third consecutive year NSW had won the inter-state fixture and an impressive effort given they had just two days to prepare in Queensland.
“It was a nervous win,” NSW coach Scott Jones told NSWRL.com.au. “At the end of the day, the kids haven’t been in an arena like that, they made a lot of errors that we would’ve liked to have cleaned up - but it was an Origin win.
“Our motto all along was ‘whatever it takes’ and they did that. They put a lot of pressure on themselves and they came out in the back end, they absorbed that and got the job done. That’s what we asked of them.”
While front-rower and captain Trey Mooney was the star for NSW, Griffiths still impressed his coach in the match and with what he has done as part of the NSWRL Pathways Program.
“Without doubt, his best quality is his calmness,” Jones said of the Bathurst Panthers junior.
“Nothing seems to rattle him, he’s just really good under pressure and he gives the same performance week in, week out.”
