Jamie Buhrer dumped from State of Origin II following fine display from NSW hooker Robbie Farah

RICKY Stuart did his best to soften the blow for dumped Manly utility Jamie Buhrer.

Robbie Farah

RICKY Stuart did his best to soften the blow for dumped Manly utility Jamie Buhrer.

"He's a young guy that didn't play himself out of a position. It's more that Robbie Farah showed that he could play and handle 80 minutes of football," Stuart said, with Buhrer essentially replaced by Penrith prop Tim Grant.

"I could move in another direction on that bench, something I wasn't comfortable with going into game one. Jamie's a great young guy and he'll play more rep football. He's at the start of his career."

A shock call-up for game one, Buhrer became an expendable commodity for game two when Farah proved he belonged in the Origin arena with a starring display.

In fact, it was during Buhrer's seven-minute cameo that the Blues lost some momentum in the series opener, with Farah's precision and speed out of dummy-half clearly lacking as the first-choice hooker grabbed a breather.

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Buhrer's axing will be easier to take given he will be Stuart's 18th man, the coach praising the Manly forward's acceptance of the situation.

"He handled it really well. It makes it comfortable for a coach when a player understands a coach's opinion and plans," Stuart said.

But while Buhrer's dumping adds more size and starch to the Blues bench, it does leave them without a back-up dummy half to cover in case of injury to Farah, as Queensland opted for in game one when there was no insurance for skipper Cameron Smith.

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