State of Origin 1 match review: New South Wales v. Queensland at Sydney

In front of a packed Olympic Stadium, the opening match of this year’s State of Origin series was played out and didn’t disappoint. Despite the loss, New South Wales played as well as they have done in some years, and will go into the second match with the knowledge that they have Queensland’s measure.

After just thirteen minutes, James Tamou was penalised for holding down Matt Gillett at the play-the-ball; the darling of the commentariat, Jonathan Thurston, snaring the two points which would prove decisive. Queensland dominated the field position stakes early, being tackled inside their opposition quarter twelve times before the Blues could even get off the mark.

Penrith fullback Matt Moylan had an up-and-down night, conceding goal-line drop-outs at one end and setting up attacks at the other. His effort in the twenty-first minute began a series of four consecutive attacking sets, culminating in James Maloney putting Easts second-rower Boyd Cordner over for the first try of the night.

New South Wales coach Laurie Daley unleashed the ‘Beast of Belmore’, David Klemmer, soon afterwards, but Queensland ended an even first half 6-4 up thanks to an old-school backline movement that ended with Dane Gagai’s inaugural Origin try. As the two sides headed for the sheds, they were, statistically speaking, virtually inseparable. The hosts had had fifty-one percent of the possession, but both teams had completed seventeen of nineteen sets and made two offloads.

The second half was a disappointment for those who want rugby league to be glorified touch football producing a collage of highlight-reel moments (which seems to be most people in this town); it was, however, a delight for those of us who savour the physical and tactical intricacies of le rugby à treize. The boys from the Premier State began to dominate the statistics, but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard. Josh Morris came closest, having a try disallowed in the sixty-sixth minute by what the hip cats these days are calling ‘The Bunker’.

Our lads threw everything at the cocky overdogs from Sir Joh’s Mrs. Palaszczuk’s Bananaland: Klemmer and Andrew Fifita, Robbie Farah’s sumptuous kicking game, even ten minutes of Dylan Walker, but to no avail. With fifteen missed tackles and four penalties each, this was rugby league played to perfection.

New South Wales 4 – Queensland 6

Tries: Cordner 25’ (N. S. W.); Gagai 37’ (Qld.)

Conversions: Reynolds 0/1 (N. S. W.); Thurston 0/1 (Qld.)

Penalties: Thurston 1/1 (Qld.)