Watch: Inside the moment Blues firebrand Spencer Leniu took the mantle as NSW’s newest villain

NSW teammates have given an incredible insight into the sideline moment Spencer Leniu cemented his place as the state’s chief villain. Watch the footage and hear from his Blues bench partners.

Spencer Leniu is on another self-imposed media ban but new footage has shown that the NSW enforcer had plenty to say when going toe-to-toe with Queensland fans during the series opener.

On a chilly Tuesday morning in Leura, NSW teammates lifted the lid on the fiery exchange between Leniu and an unforgiving Maroons crowd, after footage of the encounter emerged in the wake of the Blues’ game one victory at Suncorp Stadium.

Leniu sparked anger in Queensland over his sideline spat with Maroons legend Johnathan Thurston and dubbed ‘public enemy No.1’ north of the border in the lead-up to Origin I.

Rather than back down, Leniu embraced the tag as NSW’s newest ‘grub’.

Leniu’s expletive-laden tirade levelled at the Queenslanders for avoiding him on the kick-off when injected into game one dominated the headlines in the aftermath of the clash.

But it was Leniu’s sideline run-in with hostile Maroons fans that was the major talking point in the victorious Blues sheds at Suncorp Stadium.

Footage shows the Blues bench going through what looks like a routine warm-up and as expected Leniu is copping it from the Maroons crowd.

Not one to shy away, Leniu fires back at the jeering as his bench teammates Connor Watson, Hudson Young, Max King and Campbell Graham revel in the moment.

Except Watson revealed it was Leniu who lit the fuse after convincing teammates to take an impromptu run down the sideline in the ninth minute.

“We had finished doing all the pre-game stuff and we went to run to the bench and sit down but Spencer was like ‘let’s go for a run’,” Watson said.

“He was pretty hyped up at the time. I’ve seen him before games, he is normally pretty geed-up, it doesn’t matter but it was a lot more hyped that game and the crowd was booing him and stuff.

“He just leans into it, he loves it.

“I was running with Campbell Graham, I was just cracking up laughing at just how much he embraced the villain role in the first game.

“After the game, it was one of the things we were talking about the most. It was a moment that I would remember for the rest of my life I reckon.”

Spencer Leniu enjoyed a running battle with Maroons fans. Picture: Adam Head

Young, who can be seen with a huge smile on his face as Leniu goads the crowd, insisted it was ‘too loud to hear’ exactly what the enforcer was yelling back at the crowd.

But the Blues back rower is sure of one thing.

“He’s made for Origin,” Young said.

“That’s why I love him as a person and as a player, he is so passionate and he wears his heart on his sleeve.

“He’s embracing that role as the villain and as his teammates you get around him.”

For Max King, who debuted in game one and just happens to be the antitheses of the Roosters firebrand, Leniu’s unapologetic approach to the Maroons crowd turned out to be perfect Origin initiation.

“I was conscious of taking in the moment, because this could be my first and last game,” King said.

“And there is Spencer doing Spencer things.

“I was trying to take it in, and then here is Spencer, running up and down the sideline and he’s getting smashed by the crowd.

“We were running down too, and they are booing us and Spencer is just yelling ‘Yeah? What?’ and just giving it back.

“I was just laughing, we all were and just taking it in.

“It’s funny because I was talking to him after it and was actually saying how nervous he was before the game but you would never have noticed it.”

Blues hard man Liam Martin knows a thing or two about being the most despised man in Queensland.

“I know from when they called me ‘public enemy number one’, I just embraced it. I enjoyed it even,” Martin said.

“He has a similar personality to me, he thrives on it.

“Those games where there is aggression and physicality. I wouldn’t say he is a grub but thrives in those games.”

What the four-time premiership winner can’t understand is why Queensland refused to kick-off to Leniu in the series opener.

“I was getting into him going ‘they don’t want to kick to you’, just trying to rev him up even more about it,” Martin laughed.

“I was surprised by it. It’s Origin, I thought you would stick with it (kicking to the main man), but to go away from it, it was surprising.”

Many believe Queensland’s reluctance to give Leniu the first hit-up from the kick-off when he came onto the field in the 30th minute at Suncorp Stadium was a sign of weakness that exposed Billy Slater’s side as having a soft underbelly.

“As players, you should love that confrontation,” Young said.

“I’m not sure why they didn’t want to walk towards it.

“When I saw him going back (readying for the kick), I thought they were definitely going back to him. But they kicked the other way. They obviously had a plan, and it wasn’t to kick-off to our main man. Spencer was ready for it and they opted to go that way… we’ll see what happens in Perth.”

Originally published as Watch: Inside the moment Blues firebrand Spencer Leniu took the mantle as NSW’s newest villain