Aidan Ryan was on hand to help present Kotoni Staggs' NSW jersey

A former Wellington Cowboy himself, Ryan who now lives in Sydney was alongside Stagg's uncle Trent on Monday night as the pair presented the future NSW Blue his first jersey ahead of game one of the State of Origin series on Wednesday night.

Ryan admitted he was taken aback after being asked by Trent Staggs to attend such an important night for the family.

"Trent (Staggs) rang me up and said 'would you like to come along to present the jersey with him because I coached Kotoni in the under 18s'," he said.

"I said 'I'd love to have the opportunity to do that with you', it was something pretty special for Trent and Kotoni.

"There were a couple of tears out of the boys."

While he now lives in Sydney, Ryan will not be attending the match at Accor Stadium but said he has a pretty good reason as to why he can't go.

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"He had tickets for me but my daughter has a dance festival on so I've tried to put them first," he said.

"So I'll be watching the dance and have the footy on my phone, I'm disappointed.

"His uncle and I are going to fly up to Brisbane for game three."

Ryan may not be going to Wednesday's game but several other Wellington locals will make the junior to Sydney to watch Staggs' Origin debut.

The former Wellington Cowboys skipper said the group who are going to the game are excited to see one of their own on the game's biggest stage.

"I've spoken to a few of them, everyone is keen to go and everyone has been ringing up for free tickets,"

"Just random people are ringing up who you haven't even heard of for some time are ringing up.

"We're all pretty excited for Kotoni, he's done it the hard way."

Staggs will line up at right centre on Wednesday night alongside Daniel Tupou and will form a lethal right edge with Nathan Cleary as well as Cameron Murray for NSW.

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