Newcastle Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga is still in disbelief over his call-up to the Queensland Maroons ahead of tomorrow's State of Origin opener.
Ponga, who has a New Zealand-born father and spent five years living in Palmerston North, was called in by coach Kevin Walters yesterday after veteran star Billy Slater was ruled out with a hamstring injury.
"It's a pretty proud moment, even just to be invited into the camp to get around the kind of personnel that's in there.
"You feel on top of the world when you get picked for things like this."
The 20-year-old announced at the start of this year he decided to pledge his international allegiance with Australia over the Kiwis with the dream of one day putting on a Maroons jersey.
"I was born here, went to school here. To be honest it wasn't that tough pledging my allegiance to Queensland and Australia," he said in January.
Tomorrow night's contest kicks off at 10pm at the MCG in Melbourne.
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