South Sydney centre Beau Champion has little to say when it comes to a possible NSW Origin berth - but his statistics speak volumes.

Champion has emerged as a surprise contender for the NSW right centre position on the back of a strong start to the season which has yielded try-scoring doubles in his last three games in the red and green.

Coupled with the indifferent start to 2010 by Blues incumbent Michael Jennings, Champion's name is now in the mix alongside the likes of Manly skipper Jamie Lyon, Wests Tigers youngster Chris Lawrence and St George Illawarra tackling machine Beau Scott for the right to line up against Queensland ace Greg Inglis in Origin I.

While Canterbury flyer Josh Morris appears to already have the left centre spot wrapped up, Jennings' struggles both in defence and attack since being switched to the right have given NSW selectors cause for concern.

He has come up with just one try and zero line breaks in four games this year, while also averaging four missed tackles a game.

The two other specialist right centre options have hardly fared better - Lyon with one try and three line breaks while Scott has failed to register a try, try assist, line break or line break assist in the opening four games.

All those numbers pale in comparison to those of Champion, who has six tries, six line breaks, a pair of try assists and a couple of line break assists - making it easy to see why people are starting to take notice of the Rabbitohs 23-year-old.

But Champion said talk of representative jumpers was still a bit premature.

"I still think I'm a while off playing any sort of representative football, but if I can keep doing it over a period of time then my time may come," Champion said.

"I've got to keep proving myself, it's only been a couple of weeks.

"(Someone like) Josh Morris has been doing it for a long time - last year he scored 20 tries or something in the season and I've just started this season off really well.

"I'll just continue doing my job and if people want to talk (representative selection), they can talk." Asked if he had set himself the goal of playing Origin footy in 2010, Champion said: "Realistically probably not - there's a lot of great centres in our competition and I just wanted to start the season off really well for the Bunnies.

"There's a lot of hype around our forward pack and we wanted to go out and also perform as backs and not let our forwards down.

"I don't want to talk up any Origin selection - if I get even mentioned for a City jumper I'd be really happy." Champion was due to line up against a Blues hero from the past in Adam MacDougall when the Bunnies host Newcastle at Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford on Saturday, though a broken thumb for the `Mad Dog' means Wes Naiqama will instead line up in the centres for the Knights.

Fullback Shannon McDonnell is also nursing a thumb injury but is due to play with the aid of a splint.

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