Rugby convert Wendell Sailor admits he is "on a hiding to nothing" when he makes his debut for Queensland in the clash against the NSW Waratahs at Ballymore on Saturday night.

Sailor would normally be preparing for an Australian rugby league off-season tour at this time of the year. But he finds himself in the 15-man game on Saturday after his much-hyped signing with the Australian Rugby Union during the year.

The former Brisbane Broncos winger will start from the bench for the Centenary of Federation clash, but is expected to get 20 minutes of game time. His debut has overshadowed the Queensland versus New South Wales rivalry that normally dominates the build-up to this clash.

"I'm on a hiding to nothing because, if I go okay people will say, 'he's a top-class league player anyway', but if I don't, they will say, `I told you so'," Sailor said. "If it was a league game then I would be sitting here confident and looking forward to the challenge.

"But it's not and it's going to be a testing time. I'm going to have some knockers but at the end of the day you have to believe in yourself."

Wallaby and Reds No.8 Toutai Kefu has told Sailor to keep everything simple.

"You wouldn't want to do too much ... just get the basics right," Kefu said. "I think he might struggle at times in terms of positional play but we all know he is a good athlete and he is certainly a great footballer.

"It might take him a bit of time to get used to it but I'm pretty confident because he is a level-headed bloke, he's a smart footballer and he's super competitive."

Queensland is expected to take a fitness advantage into the game with most of its players involved in the new East Coast Rugby Series over the past three weeks. However, the Reds lost centre Steve Kefu to a thigh injury on Friday.

Meanwhile, the league versus union rivalry took a strange turn on Friday morning when a suburban Sydney rugby league stole the Waratahs' playing gear, including jerseys, at Sydney airport.

The Waratahs arrived in Brisbane without most of their playing kit after a courier was fooled into giving the gear to the rugby league team who took it to Melbourne.

The league team was caught when Victorian police intercepted the team's plane in Melbourne. New South Wales team manager Dave Gibson says players from the league team pretended to be the Waratahs in order to get their hands on the gear.

Queensland: Chris Latham, Ben Tune, Junior Pelesasa, Jason Ramsamy, Ricky Nalatu, Elton Flatley, Sam Cordingley, Toutai Kefu, David Croft, Matt Cockbain (capt), Mark Connors, Nathan Sharpe, Fletcher Dyson, Sean Hardman, Nick Stiles. Reserves: Ben Wakely, Paul Warwick, Wendell Sailor, Tom McVerry, John Roe, Rick Tyrrell, Tim Tavalea.

NSW: Mark Gerrard, Francis Cullimore, Luke Inman, Sam Harris, Marc Stcherbina, Manuel Edmonds, Chris Whitaker, David Lyons, Phil Waugh (capt), Drew Hickey, Jono West, Tom Bowman, Rod Moore, Brendan Cannon, Matt Dunning. Reserves: Huia Edmonds, Al Baxter, Jarrod Heaney, Simon Kasprowicz, Tim Clark, Duncan McRae, Tui Talaia.