'Where do you stop?': Andrew Johns whacks down NSW's plea to pick Panthers star in Origin
Blues legend Andrew Johns has put a line through the New South Wales's pitch to have Moses Leota play Origin despite him not meeting the required criteria.
Leota moved from New Zealand to NSW months after his 13th birthday, and State of Origin rules state a player can only be eligible if they lived in the state before they turned 13.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the NRL would consider an appeal from NSW but Johns doesn't think it should happen.
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"Hard line, nope," he said on Nine's Sunday Footy Show.
"Where do you stop? Four months, six months, nine months? Where do you stop? (The cut off is) 13 (years old), that's it."
Moses Leota. NRL Imagery
The Blues may be in need of a gun front rower given the injury to Payne Haas over the weekend.
Queensland Maroons coach Billy Slater said "it won't happen".
"Otherwise, where do you draw the line?" he continued.
"Ronaldo Mulitalo missed an Origin jersey years ago because of this exact situation."
QRL chief executive Ben Ikin also had a hard line stance on Leota and NSW's conundrum.
"I'm struggling to have any empathy for NSWRL or Moses Leota here," he told The Herald.
"Moses simply does not qualify to play State of Origin. The rules are the rules. We need to accept that some players might miss out by a week or a month, which might as well be three years.
Billy Slater and Ben Ikin. Getty
"Making small exceptions on the run would be farcical. The first exemption would be 13 years and four months, then it would be 13 years and seven months, and so on.
"I understand rugby league is built on drama, but we don't need this kind of drama."
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The ARLC recently changed Origin eligibility rules to allow players to play Origin and represent a Tier 1 nation other than Australia.
That has since brought a number of player under consideration, namely Casey McLean, Addin Fonua-Blake, Victor Radley and Briton Nikora.
Jason Taumololo was thought to be eligible for Queensland but arrived in Australia when he was 14. Herbie Farnworth also arrived in Queensland too late.
This year's Origin opener is on May 27 in Sydney.
