It was the phone call Jarrod Wallace had been dreaming of since he was a kid.
But when Queensland finally did come calling to offer a State of Origin debut, Wallace says it only made a bad day worse.
The Gold Coast prop will cap a rollercoaster ride when he runs out for the Maroons for the first time in their must-win Origin II clash in Sydney on Wednesday night.
It began when a Titans team barbecue last weekend was "ruined" after Wallace learned he had been cited for a shoulder charge in their NRL loss to Warriors and could miss two games.
Then Queensland coach Kevin Walters rang.
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"We were at a team barbecue, everything was good and I was happy and I remember my phone rang and they told me about the charge - I think my face just dropped," Wallace said.
"It kind of destroyed my day from there.
"I got home and was just sitting on the couch when Kevvie rang and told me I was in the team which made things even worse."
Wallace rolled the dice and fought the charge in a desperate bid to make his Maroons debut next week and came up trumps at the NRL judiciary on Tuesday night.
"You can never be confident. It could have gone either way - I was nervous until I got the call that I had been found not guilty," said Wallace, who was the Maroons' 18th man for Origin I.
He admitted he did not think twice about the fateful hit on Blake Ayshford until quizzed after the match.
"It would have been devastating to miss an Origin game over a simple tackle like that," he said.
"I didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until after and the media said something about it that I started to think about.
"I am just glad I get an opportunity to play."
Wallace is expected to come off the bench when Walters confirms his line-up on Friday after initially announcing his game two squad in alphabetical order.
