Tolu Koula will make his State of Origin debut on the wing in Wednesday's series opener, becoming only the second New South Wales player in almost a decade to be named in a position he has never started in at NRL level. The Manly centre said the move did not catch him off guard, even if it sends him into one of rugby league's harshest stages in a spot he has rarely filled in club football.
“To be honest, I wasn't too shocked,” Koula said. “I'm just grateful to play anywhere that's needed.” The 92-game NRL veteran has started only at centre, fullback or from the bench for Manly, but he has also spent time on the wing in four internationals for Tonga and in a handful of NSW Cup games. He has even been shifted there mid-game at NRL level after injuries, giving him enough exposure to treat the role as familiar rather than foreign.
That makes him part of a very short list. Since 2017, the only other Blues player named in the 13 in a spot he had never started in at NRL level was lock Dale Finucane. The last backline player to be picked so far out of position was Penrith's Matt Moylan in 2016, when he was chosen at five-eighth for game three instead of fullback. Koula said he was in Year 8 at high school when that happened.
For him, the switch has less to do with shock value than with opportunity and balance. He said the wing was “not too different from centre” and added, “I'm not too fazed about it,” noting the job mainly changes his workload rather than his rugby league instincts. “Just a few more yardage carries and having to defuse bombs and stuff. Probably a bit less tackling,” he said. “There are different things but, at the same time, it is a bit the same as well.”
The selection also reflects the squeeze in the NSW backline. Koula's path to the wing opened as Stephen Crichton and Kotoni Staggs locked down the centre spots, leaving room for a player whose best work has usually been done closer to the middle. In the same side he will line up beside Brian To'o, who has started every Origin match on the wing since his 2021 debut and has twice won Dally M Winger of the Year. Koula called To'o a winger to learn off and, when asked what better guide there could be, put it plainly: “What better winger to learn off?”
The move is a gamble only if one assumes Koula's game is tied to a single jersey number. His club record, his Tonga experience and his brief turns on the edge suggest New South Wales has picked a player with enough versatility to survive the step up. What it cannot know yet is whether that versatility translates under Origin pressure, where one error on the flank can become the defining image of a game.
