State of Origin | Players who have debuted as teenagers for NSW Blues, Queensland Maroons in pictures

The Broncos’ director of football remains the youngest-ever Origin rep, first wearing Maroon at 18 years and 82 days in 1995.

Ikin’s Queensland call-up was such a shock that his own father thought there must have been another Ben Ikin eligible for the team.

In a year that was hijacked by the Super League war, the Origin series went ahead without Super League aligned players, stripping the Maroons of their top talent due to the fact that the Broncos were joining the rebel competition.

Ikin was in his first season with the Gold Coast Seagulls when he was picked to wear No.14.

“The No.14 was Ben Ikin from the Gold Coast Seagulls. We were all dumbfounded,” Ikin recalled of his selection.

“The first phone call I got was from my dad. ‘Is there another Ben Ikin on the Gold Coast?’ he asked, and I told him that I thought I was in.”