It's arguably the toughest job in rugby league at the moment but Kurt Capewell is welcoming another State of Origin match-up against Tom Trbojevic.
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The NSW superstar continued his red-hot 2021 form in Game one in Townsville, scoring a hat-trick as the Blues romped to a 50-6 victory.
That performance had many questioning whether Capewell would retain his centres spot for Game two or be moved to the back-row where he plays his club football with Penrith.
Coach Paul Green has kept the faith with the hard-working 27-year-old, who scored Queensland's only try in their Game-one humbling for his first points in a Maroons jersey, naming him to once again go toe-to-toe with Trbojevic.
"I think we're all pretty happy to get the opportunity to make up for how we played in Townsville and I look forward to the challenge," Capewell told AAP.
"Centre's a good challenge for me and I enjoy the shift out a bit wide.
"A lot of time they went through our middle and that's not just on our middles, that's on us tightening them up as well.
"We've got a lot of work to do, winning the ruck and hopefully that'll take away from Tommy's game a bit."
Capewell is adamant the Maroons can bounce back and keep the series alive at Suncorp Stadium despite the 44-point margin between the teams in the opening match of the series.
The return of prop Josh Papalii is a big boost and Capewell believes experienced Origin campaigners such as the Canberra front-rower, halves duo Cameron Munster and Daly Cherry-Evans and utility Ben Hunt have the know-how to engineer a remarkable turnaround.
"They've all been there and done that before," he said.
"It's good to have them in the camp and hopefully we can benefit a lot from it.
"The thing is with high level sport is if you're off by one per cent or two per cent, obviously that's a lot at a high level. Great teams will make you pay.
"If everyone improves up that two per cent, we'll be a lot better team for it."
Australian Associated Press