Penrith hooker Peter Wallace admits he’d love another crack at the Origin arena but says his focus is purely on club football.
The 31-year-old is considered a strong chance to wear the number nine jumper for the Blues later this year as coach Laurie Daley weighs up whether to reward loyalty and select veteran hooker Robbie Farah in the squad.
“I would love to get another shot at it,” Wallace told the Weekender after Penrith’s heartbreaking 21-20 loss to Souths at Pepper Stadium tonight.
“There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge. It’s only round six so it’s not for another two months or so. There’s a lot of footy to be played between now and then.”
Wallace last played Origin football in 2009. Selection this year would end an eight year hiatus from the game’s biggest arena.
“I consciously haven’t been looking at the papers because I’ve heard enough from other people about it,” Wallace said.
“You can only control the controllables and I’m just focusing on playing well for Penrith at the moment.”
Wallace made 54 tackles against the Rabbitohs and did it tough against a pack that kept coming through the middle all night.
The veteran local junior took back the role of captain for tonight’s game after Matt Moylan was stood down earlier this week for breaching team protocol.
Moylan is expected to return next week but Wallace was comfortable with doing the job in his absence.
“In the circumstances I was happy to do the job,” he said.
“I would have preferred not to have to do it but these things happen throughout the year. As a group of players we will be better for what happened. It’s a hard lesson to learn but it’s one that has definitely been learned.”
Troy Dodds is the Weekender’s Managing Editor and Breaking News Reporter. He has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working with some of Australia’s leading media organisations. In 2023, he was named Editor of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.
