Australian coach Mal Meninga has confirmed James Tedesco will be the Kangaroos fullback at the end of fhe year ahead of Tedesco’s upcoming one-on-one dual with Kalyn Ponga in State of Origin I.

“Teddy has evolved his game, he watched a lot of Billy Slater, he’s on the ball all the time and his support play in unbelievable,” Meninga said.

“He also has great vision to play the width of the field. His effort on effort is fantastic.

“And the other really important part of being a fullback is talk and your positional play defensively. He’s getting that down to a fine art.”

Meninga conceded Ponga still has plenty to work on.

“Kalyn is a great ball runner like Teddy, but there are areas he still needs to improve around his positional defence and his communication at the back. There’s also his ability to play the width of the field he’s predominantly been on the left side.”