SO WHAT'S a kid who looks as if he's one year removed from serving cheeseburgers at McDonald's doing running NSW's State of Origin team?

Mitchell Pearce, 19, has been empowered to steer the Blues around ANZ Stadium tonight, the first halfback to be chosen for his first Origin game in a match which is a decider. We've got to be careful handing these No.7s the keys to the kingdom, particularly after an average of one new NSW halfback every second game for the past five years.

In the balancing act that is life as a precocious NRL halfback, you live and learn, mostly learn. Wasn't it Newcastle's Jarrod Mullen who started an Origin match in Brisbane last year at the age of 20 and looked so alone he might as well have been in witness protection?

Young Peter Wallace starred in NSW's win in Origin I this year but 30 minutes into the second game he was down on his haunches behind play. A ruptured testicle will do that.

Wallace is tough. When NSW coach Craig Bellamy called him on the eve of Origin III selection, expressing concern he could re-injure his testicle, Wallace said: "That's OK. I've got another one."

Pearce displayed similar courage for the Roosters against Newcastle the day before NSW selectors met to choose the Origin III team. The Knights belted him after he kicked the ball but he still found a way to save the game on the last tackle of the day.

NSW benchman Kurt Gidley, who was Bellamy's first-choice half for Origin I, is also courageous. He suffered a fractured eye socket playing for Newcastle against Bellamy's Storm the night before the selection of the first NSW team. When Bellamy asked the Newcastle trainer why he didn't withdraw Gidley from the field earlier, the response was: "He wouldn't come off."

Men such as Pearce, Wallace and Gidley want to play in the way bandicoots want to dig.

OK, they have desire but are they ready? Representative selectors always look back to the previous winning combination when choosing their next team, which is surprising considering the NSW men didn't see what was in front of them when City drew with Country in Wollongong on May 2.

Tim Sheens's City team was down 16-0 but his halves pairing of Pearce and Braith Anasta, which happens to be the NSW combination for tonight's decider, brought them back to 16-16 before the game finished 22-22.

Afterwards, Sheens privately told the NSW selectors that Pearce and Anasta should be the NSW pairing but they were blinded by Wallace's role coming on late in the unaccustomed role of dummy-half.

While Sheens was also impressed with Wallace, he said: "Pearce and Anasta played very well. Pearce kicked for Jarryd Hayne's try and delivered a couple of lovely passes. I was a bit surprised they were not looked at for the first Origin game. If you can get a good club pair in Origin, such as Canberra's Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley or Parramatta's Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny for NSW, or Brisbane's Allan Langer and Kevin Walters for Queensland, it can give you the edge."

The all-time greats announce themselves early, like youthful princes born to the throne. They glow with an unmistakable destiny. Some call it "the loose gene", a "bit of extra play in them", the energy of a hyperactive puppy.

Pearce's father, Wayne, was a player with one of the highest work rates in the code but didn't have his son's attacking gifts, which makes you wonder whether all that genetic dynamite with the ball came straight from mum. Or the high-intensity coaching they receive at an early age today.

Andrew Johns, Bellamy's assistant with the NSW team and the halfback of the century, predicts Pearce will be "up there" with the greats. It's unusual in sport for someone to be so generous in praise of another who plays the same position. Many of those who scale the great heights simply pull up the rope ladder afterwards.

Pearce won Bellamy over when he turned Storm second-rower Ryan Hoffman - now his NSW teammate - upside down three times in a match in round three. His technique is to fake high and drop low and drive through the ball-carrier's ribs, slamming them on their backs. Still, he will be targeted by Queensland runners tonight, not because he can't tackle but because he can attack. "Spotting" players has always been part of rugby league tactics but has migrated from exploiting the injured and the defensively weak to the strong.

From the days when Wests and Canterbury five-eighth Terry Lamb started to score tries, opposition players have been running at the gifted attackers to blunt their edge with the ball.

And even with a good tackler such as Pearce, his lighter weight means the runner is a chance of a quick play-the-ball. Pearce normally defends on the right, so he will be directly in the path of Queensland's Greg Inglis, the centre who was dispatched in Brisbane to run at NSW's porous side of the injured Mark Gasnier and winger Steve Turner, who were playing together for the first time. Inglis plays the ball quicker than almost anyone in the NRL and he is almost certain to collide with Pearce. But Pearce can still prevail via his kicking game.

NSW went into the first two games with only Wallace as a clearing kicker. Queensland's Steve Price harassed him in Brisbane and tall fullback Karmichael Hunt was able to take the kicks on the halfway line, reducing the distance the Maroons' big pack had to retreat to only 20 metres. With Pearce and Anasta both expert kickers and Price unsure which one to target, the Blues should be able to spend more time at the Maroons' end.

Queensland don't like playing at Homebush Bay and are burdened by favouritism. Pearce, though, has the joy of the game in his blood and may be just the one to spread it.