Set of Six: Johnson v Tomkins

Shaun Johnson and Sam Tomkins. Photos Getty Images

This week's Warriors media session saw Shaun Johnson join the press throng and attempt to interview teammate Sam Tomkins. Asked by a reporter if he felt like he was getting more ball in recent weeks, the England fullback didn't miss his chance to have a dig at the Warriors playmaker. "Yeah. Shaun Johnson's finally started passing to me," was his reply. Later, when Johnson chimed in to ask him how the team was preparing for Sunday's match against the Knights, Tomkins said: "All the lads have been in training but there was one bloke who missed the start of the session. One of the halfbacks is a bit of a princess.But everyone else has been traininghard."

Hayne v Hodges

The State of Origin opener featured a running battle between Blues fullback Jarryd Hayne and Maroons centre Justin Hodges. The pair clashed on a couple of occasions in the first half, while Hayne took the chance to give Hodges another mouthful as the two sides headed to the sheds at halftime. It's fair to say the Eels star came out on top after producing a man-of-the-match performance for New South Wales.

Coach killer

Benji Marshall will have gone through three different coaches in a rugby/NRL season before the end of May - John Kirwan at the Blues, Steve Price at the Dragons, and his replacement, as of this week, Paul McGregor. Throughout his first life in the NRL, Marshall was schooled by the respected Tim Sheens for 10 years, while Price oversaw his NRL return for 519 weeks less than that.

Wrong back-rower?

The Warriors chased hard to snare Melbourne and New South Wales back-rower Ryan Hoffman but perhaps they should have done more to entice his Storm teammate and Kiwis forward Kevin Proctor? Hoffman was solid without being spectacular in the Blues' Origin win over Queensland, while Proctor's recent club performances prompted Canberra to offer him more than A$700,000 a season. The Storm obviously saw the value of his contributions, however, and earlier this week secured his services for another four years.

Origin overkill

As usual, Wednesday night's Origin featured an over-the-top and extended build-up that was in danger of running longer than the actual match. The fact that it was the 100th Origin game, might give the NRL events organising committee some leeway for the Broadway-style production, and hey, at least this year we were spared Phil Gould's rambling soliloquy.

Joey's trade secrets

There was one piece of the Origin build-up that made fantastic viewing. Former Blues great Andrew Johns offered his expert pre-game analysis of Jarryd Hayne and Cooper Cronk's positional and tactical play, giving viewers an insight into how the top players go about their business. The league Immortal might be rough around the edges with his television presenting skills but he knows more about the game than almost anyone.