He is yet to play State of Origin and could be forgiven for going into bat for himself but Jack de Belin has instead thrown his weight behind his in-form teammates even if it means missing out himself.

The hard-hitting forward believes up to five St George Illawarra Dragons colleagues should be selected for Australian rugby league’s representative showpiece.

“Whether I’m there or not, I’d love to see plenty of Dragons picked. I think half a dozen deserve to be there,” he told Big League magazine.

“There are at least six guys you could pick from right now, who are putting their hand up and saying ‘pick me with their form.”

He signalled out Tyson Frizell, Cameron McInnes, Paul Vaughan, Tariq Sims and Euan Aitken for higher honours and also admitted Blues coach Brad Fittler had spoken to him about selection for Game I.