New boots, no worries: Wet track woes won’t haunt NSW halfback for decider

Sky Blues halfback Rachael Pearson hit the deck twice in game two of the women’s Origin series after torrential rainleft the pitch slippery and soggy in Newcastle.

But the 30-year-old said her confidence isn’t rattled from the experience, and she’d be ready if predicted thunderstorms arrive for the decider in Townsville next week, after she invested in a new set of boots with metal studs.

Rachael Pearson slips over during Origin II in Newcastle.

“You don’t let it get to you. Stuff happens in footy, and you’ve just got to move on and roll with it,” Pearson said.

Her first tumble came in the game’s opening seconds after the pelting rain and wind gave her grief putting the ball on the tee, before slipping on the kick-off. A sideline conversion from the wettest part of the field had her hitting the deck once more.

“It’s frustrating, but you play to the conditions,” Pearson said. “I think the most frustrating thing for me was slipping over on the kick-off, [and] slipping over on an important conversion attempt that could have put us up by eight points.

“Obviously, you can’t dwell on that, but the conditions were tough, kicking, everything is soaking wet, your boots are probably three times heavier. The ball, if you hit it slightly off, it’s going to slip off the side of your boot. It can be frustrating, but you’ve just got to adapt and try and still put the ball where you want to put it and put a bit more oomph on it.

Sky Blues coach Kylie Hilder.

“It’s just unlucky, that sort of thing. There’s not much I can do about it. I’ve got some different boots that I’m going to trial with metal studs to stop that from happening ever again. So when there’s a wet game I’ll wear those.”

Coach Kylie Hilder was said her team was “definitely suited to a drier track” following the Sky Blues’ game two defeat, but that handling the conditions would be a focus area heading into game three.

“That was extreme weather at Newcastle. There was a lot of rain there, but we know no matter the conditions we’ve got to be able to adapt and play our footy, which is something we’ve spoken about, and we’ll work on that during the week,” Hilder said.

“We tried not to speak about the weather [before game two], and girls at this level have got to be able to play in all conditions. We didn’t stop playing footy, which is the thing that I’ve spoken to the girls about. Whether it’s a dry track or wet track we still play the brand of footy we want to play.

“Obviously, it was a little slower which slows the game down. We like to play a fast-paced game, so that probably affected us more than anything.”

Watch State of Origin exclusively Live and Free on Channel 9 & 9Now