AS THE NSW Origin team went through their paces yesterday in an opposed training session against the Wests Tigers under-20s team, Wayde Dunley was given the role of Scott Prince, Coedi Towney played Karmichael Hunt, and Bill Harrigan was … well, Bill Harrigan.

The record-holder for the most Origin games as referee will be in the video box on Wednesday night but at Toyota Park yesterday he was back out in the middle as the Blues practised their defence against young Tigers instructed by Andrew Johns to perform a series of plays favoured by the Queensland team.

Clutching handwritten notes on the Maroons, Johns initially grabbed Dunley, a tough halfback from Campbelltown who captains the Tigers' Toyota Cup team, Towney, a fullback described as being more like Brett Hodgson than Hunt, and a number of others whose roles were to act as decoy runners, and had them rehearse the moves before they took on NSW's best.

Although Johns occasionally involved himself, mostly at dummy half, the Blues' defence had few problems coping with the attacking play of their rivals - although the players know that is no guarantee of success against the likes of Prince, Hunt, Johnathan Thurston and Greg Inglis.

Indeed, as one Blues player admitted to the Herald, there would be cause for concern if they hadn't, given the junior Tigers were beaten 48-0 last weekend by a Broncos outfit who themselves lost 48-8 to Canberra the week before.

Harrigan's role, according to NSW coach Craig Bellamy, was to help keep the players back the 10 metres in defence and to police the rucks - but his presence had nothing to do with the Blues' complaints about the performance of referee Tony Archer in Origin II.

"We just got a referee down for today's session," Bellamy said. "Usually they send a young bloke along but Bill's come along today. I think he lives locally.

"It's game-related, we want to get our training as game-related as possible, so having the referee there, with the dialogue, is an important thing. As we are doing our drills, he's just there to make sure we're getting back our 10 metres, and if we do any ruck work … if there is anything going wrong there, he will let us know."

With new halves Mitchell Pearce and Braith Anasta coming into the side for the series decider, Bellamy said most of the Blues' preparations had so far focused on helping the pair fit into the team, although it was as much a case of the team fitting around them, given the positions they play and their combination at the Roosters.

Anasta did not take part in the ballwork session due to an ankle problem but the former Test five-eighth insisted he would take part in the NSW side's next training session when the team returns to camp tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Queensland are on full alert for an aerial assault by Pearce and Anasta in game three. The duo's kicking game has led to almost half the Roosters' 56 tries this season - clearly the best return of any club.

"They've both got great kicking games and they [NSW] lacked a bit of that in game two and we'll have our work cut out for us," Maroons five-eighth Thurston said. "They've got more options with Braith and Mitch there and I definitely think they'll use that."

Thurston said so much of Origin was built around a good kicking game because field position was so crucial.

"If you win that battle, nine times out of 10 you win the game," he said. "We'll do a fair bit of video on them over the next few days and I'm sure the coaches will have an input as well. They're very dangerous and the Roosters have scored a lot of tries from their kicks and I'm sure they'll try and take that into Origin."

A 40-minute field session by Queensland's backs at Central Coast Grammar School yesterday was devoted entirely to defusing bombs.

Thurston, Prince and Cam Smith spent the entire time peppering Israel Folau, Brent Tate, Darius Boyd, Hunt and Inglis with spiralling kicks.

While Thurston acknowledged the threat Anasta and Pearce posed, he warned there was still a lot of improvement to come from his one-game-old partnership with halfback Prince. "I think the cohesion we had in game two can pick up a fair bit and I'm looking forward to playing with him again," he said.

With AAP