'I can't make him taller': Daley backs To'o in duel with Maroons' X-man

Westpac NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley has ruled out switching Zac Lomax to the left wing as Maroons winger Xavier Coates vowed to again exploit his towering height advantage over Brian To’o.

Queensland targeted To’o with kicks for Coates in last month’s series opener, resulting in the star winger spending a stint in the sinbin after making a mid-air tackle on his 20cm taller opponent just before halftime.

The Blues responded by shifting Lomax from the right to left wing while To’o was in the sinbin, before the pair reverted to their original positions after his return.

Lomax is officially listed as being 190cm tall, while To’o reportedly stands at 174cm – 20cm shorter than Coates, who is 194cm tall.

Asked if the Maroons would continue their strategy of pitting him against To’o in the air, Coates said: “There's no point in moving away from a strength that we feel that our team has, so I think we're going to keep trying to do that”.

However, the NSW camp is unperturbed, and Daley has backed To’o to counter Queensland’s aerial tactics in Origin II at Perth's Optus Stadium, as he has done for most of his career.

“Obviously. that is a big target for them but there is not much you can do. You can’t make Brian any taller,” Daley said.

Despite spending 10 minutes in the bin, the four-time premiership winning Panthers winger ran a game high 225m from 21 carries of the ball - many of which were out of yardage from NSW’s end - and scored a try.

Coates scored Queensland’s only try while To’o was in the sinbin after a Jeremiah Nanai tackle on Latrell Mitchell forced the ball loose and the Maroons capitalised on their one-man overlap by shifted it quickly to the star winger.

“I’ve always been told you’re too short or too small to do things, so it’s only going to make me better,” To’o said. “That’s what I want to be, and I’ll always compete for those high balls. 

“It’s always a challenge [defending kicks] but I love that pressure and challenge of coming up against tall wingers.”

Daley may ask Mitchell to provide more support for To'o, but Queensland's other tactic of kicking for Nanai, who played right edge backrower, made it difficult for the NSW left centre to anticipate where he needed to defend.

The Blues coach revealed that he had initially planned for right centre Stephen Crichton to shift to the left wing when To'o was sinbinned and second-rower Angus Crichton to take his place.

However, Lomax spoke to assistant coach Dean Young and offered to swap wings, with Crichton moving to the right flank.     

“That was Zac's decision," Daley said. "We were going to go the other way, but Zac said he would go over there and play on [Coates]. We were going to move Angus to centre and then move Critta out."