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EARLY Wednesday morning, Robbie Farah received a phone call. From somewhere down the line, sister Jocelyn asking if she might pop by his team's Homebush hotel later that afternoon with a gift? A game day charm.
Explaining to little brother how, right now in her hand, she held that long piece of string their mother Sonia wore throughout those eight gruelling months she fought pancreatic cancer. A homemade lucky charm tied forever around her wrist because ... well, in battles so lopsided, one seeks out all the help they can get.
"And my sister, she wanted to cut it up for the game,'' Farah says. "She was going to wear one half to ANZ Stadium and the other, that was for me."
The small piece of string Farah wore during Origin II in memory of his mother. Source: News Corp Australia
And standing now with The Daily Telegraph inside a jubilant NSW dressing room, shirtless and drinking from a stubby of VB, the hooker lifts his wrist to reveal that little piece of string.
Yes, he wore it into battle he says. Better, it worked.
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"With Queensland up by four late in the game, I knew it was all coming down to one moment, one play,'' Farah continues. "And the whole time, I kept looking down at that string, saying, 'Mum, can you please give us that moment ... just give us one moment."
And for as long as he lives, Farah will believe she did.
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Adamant it was Mum who, with eight minutes remaining, provided not only the pass from himself to Trent Hodkinson, but the gaping hole through which the NSW halfback raced to etch the Blues into Origin folklore.
"So this night, it really is the greatest moment of my life,'' Farah continues, pulling gently now at the beige string as he speaks.
"I don't know where the cameras were at full-time, but I was near halfway. When that siren sounded, I just fell to my knees and burst into tears.
"I've always been an emotional guy who plays with his heart on his sleeve. But it's even better knowing I have all my family here to share it with."
And when Farah says all of them, he means it.
Farah puts the hard word on Daly Cherry-Evans during game two. Source: Getty Images
"Oh, as I said, throughout the game I kept looking down at that string for help," he reveals. "There was no tape covering it up or anything like that.
"It was right there and I was thinking about Mum all the time ... asking her for strength."
And that he received in bucketloads. Apart from churning through 42 tackles, Farah also threw the pass for the game's only try and continually chased Queensland halfback Daly Cherry-Evans about ANZ Stadium like the bloke had stolen his wallet.
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In fact, about the only thing he didn't do was watch Hodkinson convert the goal that eventually proved the difference.
"Oh, no chance,'' Farah laughs. "Please. I heard the crowd go up and that was it ... I started preparing for the longest eight minutes if my life."
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And when they were done, so too was one of NSW Origin's great roller-coasters, remembering how only two years ago, in April, 2012, NSW legend and fellow Balmain boy Steve 'Blocker' Roach suggested Farah wasn't built for Origin football.
"Robbie is a great player ... but his game doesn't suit Origin,'' Roach said at the time. "You can't do in Origin what you do in club games.
"You need more than just skill and guile."
Farah gets hold of Cam Smith to prove he has the toughness required for Origin. Source: News Corp Australia
And, sure, with Blocker an integral part of Blues camps each year, Farah and he have long since brokered peace.
"But still, Blocker is here somewhere,'' he laughs. "Let's go find him and ask if I'm an Origin player now.
"These days, we have no problem joking about it. But at the time, yeah, it hurt. Cut me massively.
"Yet when things like that happen, you can cry or you can prove people wrong. I'd like to think I did the later.
"To come from those times, to get back in the side and be captain last year, be vice captain to Paul Gallen now, this means the world to me."
So does family.
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Indeed, Origin and the Farah clan have been eerily intertwined from that first night, way back in 2009, when the gritty Wests Tigers captain shelled out for tickets, accommodation, even airfares so that 40 family members could travel to Melbourne and watch him debut.
It was there in his last Origin game before Sonia's passing too, when Farah made 63 tackles and earned Man of the Match.
Call it his reason for being.
Like following his rise to the Blues captaincy last year, when Farah celebrated the announcement by switching off his phone and taking Jocelyn and their brothers Eddie and Jason to lunch.
Robbie Farah's proud parents Peter and Sonia celebrate his initial NSW selection in 2009. Source: News Limited
Or there on Wednesday evening when, as jubilant Blues players brought their children onto the field, Farah went and found Jayden Merhi — the little nephew all dark hair and Luna Park smile. A toothy grin that could on Thursday be seen beaming back countless celebration photographs.
This is the heartbeat that not only inspires Farah, but drives him. A strength that, on Wednesday night, he wore around his wrist.
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