'I wasn't even paying attention to it': Pearson unfazed by background noise

It's still a world away from a sold-out McDonald Jones Stadium, but the ace Sky Blues halfback Rachael Pearson has up her sleeve is the rare ability to treat wildly differing environments in exact same manner.

That cool-headedness, along with game-management smarts and a kicking arsenal among the best in the game, is what prompted NSW coach Kylie Hilder to hand the Helensburgh Tigers product the No. 7 for Origin opener a fortnight ago.

It was the most talked-about selection ahead of game one, with Pearson earning a recall ahead of teen sensation Jesse Southwell.

Many felt Southwell would have a long-term mortgage on the No. 7 jumper after wearing it in the Sky Blues win over Queensland in game two last year.

That call-up came at the expense of Pearson, who was dropped on the back of an 18-10 defeat in the first of a two-game series last year.

With the series extended to a rightful three fixtures this year, Hilder instead wiped the slate clean in pairing Pearson with fellow Helensburgh alum Corban Baxter in the halves.

It proved the right call as the duo steered to Blues to a first-up 22-12 win in hostile territory north of the border.

With Thursday's Origin II scheduled for Southwell's hometown of Newcastle - where she'd helped steer the Knights to consecutive NRLW premierships - it would have made for a thick selection plot had the Blues gone a game down.

It's a sign of the growing interest in the women's product, but Pearson said that selection intrigue didn't factor into her thinking before or after the game-one triumph.

"I was just happy to be back out there wearing the seven for the Sky Blues," Pearson said.

"I didn't really read too much into the narratives that were out there. I don't really go on social media, I get off Instagram.

"I don't read posts or comments because obviously everyone's entitled to their opinion on who should be selected and all that stuff.

"At the end of the day, we trained hard for two months, the coaches made their decisions and I was happy that they backed me to do the job.

"To then get out there in game one and win, I was happy with my performance. All I had to do was play my game and do the job that the team needed me to do.

"That's all I really focused on. Anything outside of that, I wasn't even paying attention to it."

The victory in game one allayed fears that the Blues could be underdone heading into the showpiece event given the decision to push the start of the NSW Women's Premiership back to July this year.

It was done to align it with the NRLW season but, barring the few who headed north to play in the Q Cup, it left many of the Blues stars starved of on-field action heading into the series opener.

For Pearson the spell compounded a run of niggling injuries that limited her first NRLW campaign with Parramatta last year, but the 30-year-old found a silver lining to the long preparation.

"I did get to play the back end of the NRLW and I got to play in the PM's (13), so I wasn't worried about that lack of footy," she said.

"If anything, we just got to spend a lot more time together. We were training for eight weeks before it so we saw a lot of each other, we got to know each other a lot more off the field.

"We were doing all the hard yards together for those weeks and then you come into camp and you've already got those connections on and off the field because you've been doing that work together.

"It was my first time playing alongside Corban and even Higgo (Olivia Higgins) at nine, but those combinations just came easy.

"It was like we had all played together before because we're all just out there doing our jobs with the team."

Being one-up in a best-of-three series is a first for the squad, as is the chance to ice it in two at home, but Pearson says the shift in format hasn't seen a dramatic shift in approach.

"It's still a game of footy and we prepare the same," she said.

"You celebrate your wins, but it's a three-game series so you've got to shift your focus quickly to game two because the job's not done yet.

"You just try and replicate what you did in the first camp into the second camp and then into the third.

"Obviously every team does video on the opposition, so there might be a few little trick shots, but most quality teams stick to their basics and try and nail them.

"Newcastle has got a huge rugby league support base and it's going to be a first for a lot of us to play in that arena with that many fans.

"It's going to be a bit different to Rex Jackson Oval on a cold Saturday afternoon, but I'm really looking forward to it."