Brisbane veteran Darius Boyd has come to the defence of teammate Corey Oates who will still be having nightmares after an aerial onslaught from Penrith’s Nathan Cleary on Friday night.

Oates had his worst game in the NRL to date but Boyd backed the big winger to make his Australian debut at the end of the season.

“It’s pretty remarkable that he has played Origin and he will play for Australia at the end of the year,” Boyd said.

“Oatesy is still learning to play wing.

“He’s a young kid who hasn’t played a lot of games there.

“He will learn from that.”