Front-rowers are usually invaluable in the rain, but a combination of the Blues chasing points and the injury to winger Tolu Koula after he was shoulder charged to the head by Kalyn Ponga with 23 minutes to go meant NSW coach Laurie Daley had to leave Saifiti on the bench to bring on a genuine outside back in Casey McLean.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the harsh reality facing players these days, with coaches generally using three of their bench options and then waiting until the final 20 minutes to decide who they should use as their fourth substitute.<\/p>\n
It means two players don\u2019t get used, although the Blues were able to use a fifth given Koula was forced off as a result of foul play, which meant they could activate another interchange player without it counting to their mandated four. <\/p>\n
While he didn\u2019t get on for his third game in blue \u2013 Matt Burton was brought on for the final few minutes \u2013 the Knights prop understood why given his team needed to score three tries in the final 20 minutes to steal the series opener.<\/p>\n
GOSFORD, AUSTRALIA – MAY 25: Jacob Saifiti passes the ball during the New South Wales Blues Men’s State of Origin training session at Polytec Stadium on May 25, 2026 in Gosford, Australia. (Photo by Scott Gardiner\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew with a six-man bench it was a possibility,\u201d Saifiti told the NewsWire, with the prop cheering loudly when James Tedesco flew through the air to score the winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was close to going on for Isaah Yeo just before halftime, but I knew at halftime we were chasing points, so it was a good chance I wasn\u2019t going to get on.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Tolu went down, it was a free interchange, but we were still chasing points. Honestly, if we were winning, I probably go on in that situation. But the fact that they needed creativity meant I wasn\u2019t going to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been on the other side of it when we\u2019re defending points they put me back on, so that\u2019s the game we play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had a loss, then it probably would have stung a bit more, but we won so that\u2019s great. I would have loved to have got on, but I\u2019ll take the win any day of the week. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a staunch NSW supporter. Even if I wasn\u2019t playing tonight or part of the squad, I would have been at home with my Blues jumper on, so I\u2019m just so grateful to be part of the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n
“A Send Off any day of the week” | 00:39<\/p>\n
Saifiti has had a wonderful season with the Knights but now faces a nervous wait, with superstar prop forward Payne Haas set to come straight into the Blues squad after missing game one with a knee injury. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we get there we\u2019ll cross that bridge,\u201d Haas said ahead of his return this weekend for Brisbane.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo play for your state is always a blessing and it\u2019s a huge honour, but for now I\u2019m just worried about Broncos and doing my job for the boys here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll just stay present here, worry about my footy here. We\u2019re in a bit of a slump at the moment, so I just want to get back to playing Broncos footy and try and get the win this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strange was the Blues Best, not Cleary? | 00:59<\/p>\n
Wednesday night\u2019s miracle win had a tinge of pain for Saifiti, who watched on as Knights teammate Kalyn Ponga was sent off for his shot on Koula.<\/p>\n
Ponga escaped with just a fine, with Saifiti waiting in the Blues sheds before he could reach out to his close friend who must have thought at the time that he was facing a ban. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s on the other side and he\u2019s wearing a different jersey, but he\u2019s honestly one of my good mates,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably too soon to go over and see him because I can only imagine how he\u2019s feeling, so it\u2019s a tough one. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such a competitor. I love the bloke, so I\u2019ll reach out to him soon. I\u2019ll let him do his thing in this next couple of hours, then I\u2019ll give him a call and check up on him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacob Saifiti was the first State of Origin victim of the fluid six-man bench rules, with the NSW…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-703232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}