State of Origin 2018: Tariq Sims makes sales pitch to NSW Blues selectors: I’ll bring the attitude
TARIQ Sims has made a simple sales pitch to Blues selectors. The St George Illawarra enforcer is pushing to make his NSW debut after a rampaging start to the season.
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TARIQ Sims has made a simple sales pitch to Blues selectors. The St George Illawarra enforcer is pushing to make his NSW debut after a rampaging start to the season.
On the day where the Daily Telegraph named Sims alongside 16 potential Blues debutants, the 28-year-old had a clear message to Blues coach Brad Fittler.
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“If I’m called upon to do a job, I’ll do it,” Sims said. “If they want someone that’s not going to take a backward step with a bit of attitude and starch in defence, I’m your guy.
“Look I’m just going to make sure that I’m doing my job for the Dragons, my team. My team needs me first and there’s still a long time until the team’s being picked for the NSW side. “Obviously I want to be involved in it, but a lot can change in one week. I can either play really good football and put myself in a better position or I can play terrible football and get spat out the back door.”
Sims has made a name for himself this year by terrorising opposition halves. So much so it prompted Fittler to say that the best way to stop probable Queensland No. 7 Ben Hunt — who has been in irresistible form for St George Illawarra — is by launching Sims onto him.
“It’s not (my job) to hunt halfbacks,” Sims said. “It’s to apply pressure to halfbacks in a legal manner. It’s no secret I’ve been in trouble with the judiciary before. I’ve had to try and adapt my game.
“It’s a game of rugby league. It’s a physical game, accidents do happen. We don’t go out there to hurt or injure anybody, I definitely don’t. Rugby league is a contact sport so you’d be crazy to think that sometimes some tackles might get away from you.”
Sims has been on the verge of Origin football before only to be cruelled by injuries. But he has been rejuvenated this year after finally switching to his preferred edge spot for the first time since joining St George Illawarra midway through 2016. Sims had been lumped as a bench forward at the Dragons but challenged coach Paul McGregor to give him Joel Thompson’s vacant left edge position.
His rise has been so meteoritic that at the start of the season he was vying for a starting spot with rookie Luciano Leilua.
“I’ve played my whole career in back row,” Sims said. “When I came here, I played my first game in the middle.
“Pre-season, it was a bit uncertain because Joel was here until maybe two weeks before the season started. I just kept playing my role in the team. I was floating in and out of the middle and the back row and obviously hopefully that adds a string to my bow when it comes to the Blues squad, that I can actually play in the middle, (mix) it up with the big boys and I can go out on the edge if the edges are a bit tired.”