New South Wales has kept alive its hopes of winning a third straight State of Origin series with a convincing 34-10 victory over Queensland in Game Two at Sydney’s Olympic stadium.
The Maroons held a 1-0 series lead heading into Wednesday evening’s clash, courtesy of last week’s 18-14 win in Adelaide, but they were dominated by a ruthless Blues outfit, which scored six tries to two.
The Blues conceded the first try of the match, however they then controlled proceedings to set up an enticing State of Origin III at Brisbane’s Lang Park next Wednesday.
“We focused tonight mostly on effort-based teamwork,” Blues halfback Nathan Cleary told ABC Sport.
“We had a pretty simple game plan, but I think we executed it really well.”
The Maroons were dealt a blow in only the second minute of play when Cameron Munster left the field following a head knock.
The talismanic five-eighth failed his head injury assessment and did not return to the field. His departure was felt as the match wore on, with the visitors noticeably missing his playmaking ability.
Among the storylines of Origin I was how the Maroons lifted themselves off the canvas after trailing 10-0 at half-time.
They were 18-4 behind at the break in Sydney and while Wayne Bennett’s half-time address in Adelaide may have sparked the turnaround in the series opener, the Blues were awake to any threat of a Maroons’ comeback this time around.
It only took three minutes of the second half for the Blues to extend their lead, with NRL Dally M medallist Jack Wighton crashing over.
Only 10 metres from the Maroons’ line, the Blues ran left with five-eighth Cody Walker firing off a cut-out pass to Wighton, who slipped past two tacklers and beat a third defender to find the try line.
The Wighton try was converted by Cleary and the Blues added their fifth four-pointer of the match when winger Daniel Tupou crossed out wide.
Tempers flared as the second half approached its midway point. Following a melee, the Blues’ Payne Haas and his Maroons opponent Tino Fa’asuamaleaui were sent to the sin-bin to cool their heels.
A late Maroons fightback appeared a possibility when Josh Papalii scored in the 63rd minute and Valentine Holmes added the extras, but it was not to be.
Addo-Carr registered his second try when he chased through on a deft left-footed grubber from Walker that left Maroons winger Phillip Sami well beaten.
The try, scored in the right-hand corner, iced a dominant display from the Blues, who are looking to add to their series wins in 2018 and 2019 under coach Brad Fittler.
Blues get on top in first half
Despite losing Munster soon after kick-off, the Maroons were the first to post points on the scoreboard in the eighth minute of play.
As the Maroons attacked the Blues’ left-edge defence deep inside opposition territory, captain Daly Cherry-Evans used a second-man play to find centre Dane Gagai charging towards the line.
Gagai was halted by the Blues defence but he was able to slip away a neat one-handed offload to winger Xavier Coates, who used his superb athleticism to leap high and dive over to establish the Maroons’ 4-0 lead.
The Coates try seemed to trigger the Blues into action, however, and they replied on the scoreboard 10 minutes later through Walker.
It was the Blues’ turn to put the Maroons’ left-edge defence under pressure and when Cleary found Walker with a well-timed pass, the South Sydney playmaker did the rest.
He spun out of a Kurt Capewell tackle and crossed the stripe. With Cleary’s conversion, the Blues led 6-4.
Makeshift Blues captain James Tedesco used his brilliant footwork to post a second converted try five minutes later — again down the right edge in attack — before Addo-Carr touched down for his side’s third try in the shadows of half-time.
Cleary’s third conversion of the evening gave the home side their commanding 14-point lead at the break.
Read how State of Origin II unfolded in our blog.
Live updates
By Jon Healy
Key EventPinned
NSW LEVELS THE SERIES!
That was about as big a turnaround between games one and two as you can have. The Blues were the complete package tonight.
The defence in the first half set up the rout, not letting the Maroons ever get their feet under them. That allowed the Blues’ money men to do their thing on the other side of the ball, and do that they did.
Nathan Cleary played one of the best games I’ve ever seen him play, Cody Walker complemented him perfectly, and James Tedesco reminded us why he’s considered the best player in the world.
NSW was on fire from the opening seconds, and they’ll give a Blues three-peat a red-hot crack in the decider up in Brisbane.
By Jon Healy
Pinned
STATE OF ORIGIN II: NSW Blues vs Queensland Maroons in Sydney
By Jon Healy
Who doesn’t love a decider?
Queensland will be disappointed, but both teams and sets of fans should be excited by the prospect of a Lang Park decider.
Tonight’s game had plenty of sugar and spice and all things nice and you’d imagine that will be the same up north.
With two young sides, this could really be the start of something special between them.
I’ll let you go until then. Thanks for sticking around.
By Jon Healy
Soul searching for the Maroons
Look, the loss of Munster in the first minute was massive, but not that big.
They need to figure out how to get on the front foot earlier, because the Blues defence smashed them from the jump. They need to find a way to defend those backline shifts, be they from scrums or in general play.
Jai Arrow, Lindsay Collins, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Dane Gagai and Kurt Capewell can all hold their heads high tonight.
I’d be considering swapping out Jake Friend for Harry Grant, regardless of how he washes up after that head knock. Friend tried hard but was poor tonight. He didn’t offer much explosion and his service from dummy half was pretty poor.
There was something weird going on with the substitutions tonight. Josh Papalii didn’t get back on for his second stint until 18 minutes left. Dunamis Lui barely had a second stint, but I think that’s because of the performance of Arrow and Collins.
Felise Kaufusi should also feel the hooves behind him. He looked a step slow tonight, while most of the rest of the forward pack – Jaydn Su’a, Tino, Arrow, Collins – had their moments.
They’ll get a boost up at Lang Park, but they’ll need more than some mystic energy from the home of Origin to overcome that 24-point difference.
By Jon Healy
Nathan Cleary is a deserving man of the match
Sometimes when the halfback gets the nod in games like this, it can feel like a bit of throwaway award, but he was an absolute puppet master tonight.
His running game kept the middle men guessing and his kicking game ask constant questions of the wingers.
That’s the best game I’ve seen him play, with all the pressure that had been heaped on him this week he stood 15 feet tall.
By Jon Healy
80th minute: Cleary tries one last superstar play, but Hunt wraps him up.
Gutherson kicks it out to end the game. They won’t worry about packing the scrum.
NSW wins it 34-10!
By Jon Healy
78th minute: The dropout ends in a penalty for NSW. A pretty dubious one if you ask me. Ben Hunt was trying to get to a miracle short dropout, and he jumped for the ball, but was taken out by Jake Trbojevic and basically tackled into Tedesco, who came down hard.
NSW will pot two more points.
Cleary adds the penalty goal to make it 34-10 with a bit over a minute left.
By Jon Healy
77th minute: Tedesco grubbers in-goal and earns another set with a dropout. Because why not?
By Jon Healy
76th minute: 40/20 from Cleary! He caught the ball too far out in front, gathered with a short step, and hooked to the left for a surprise 40/20. What a play.
By Jon Healy
75th minute: Capewell puts Lindsay Collins through a gap in the middle. What a play. But no-one saw it coming, so there was no support play.
The set actually ends with a booming spiral bomb from Cherry-Evans, but Clint Gutherson was equal to it.
By Jon Healy
73rd minute: Daniel Saifiti wastes the chance with a knock on in a strong tackle from Tino and Collins.
Hunt tries the admirable 40/20, and almost pulls it off. But instead, Tupou gets there and finds Tedesco, who makes it back to the 20m line. He’s a freak this bloke. Just untouchable.
By Jon Healy
71st minute: Nathan Cleary flies through the middle and sends Tedesco away.
And Cody Walker chips over the top (Holmes made the tackle on Tedesco) and they get a penalty as Cherry-Evans interferes with Walker chasing his own kick. So more defence for Queensland on their line.
By Jon Healy
69th minute: The Blues thought they had Tupou over again, with Cleary sweeping across, linking with Walker, but the tap-on from Wighton went to ground and out. Another 90-metre set required from Queensland.
By Jon Healy
67th minute: Daniel Saifiti slams Jaydn Su’a’s head into the ground and the Queenslander knocks on. That’s a waste of the possession they earned with the short kick-off.
By Jon Healy
Key Event
Another try for Josh Addo-Carr!!
The Blues are scoring every time they get within coo-ee of the tryline.
This time the Maroons defence manned up and Cody Walker dinked in a neat grubber. Phillip Sami seemed to have it covered, but the ball scooted under him and Addo-Carr stole his lunch.
By Jon Healy
64th minute: Again the Maroons get outside the Blues from deep inside their own half, and this time it ends in Blues hands, with Cleary knocking the ball out of Capewell’s hands.
By Jon Healy
Queensland gets one back through Josh Papalii!
A very nice ball from Daly Cherry-Evans gets his hulking prop one on one with Damien Cook, and he brushed him off to touch down. Probably a consolation try, but at least it’s a sign of life.
Valentine Holmes’s conversion makes it 28-10 to the Blues.
By Jon Healy
62nd minute: Six again earned by Capewell as he flew down the left yet again. He’s somehow still played well in this thoroughly beaten side.
By Jon Healy
60th minute: Cleary kicks in behind Sami again! The Blues claim a try, but the ball bounced on the line. So the Maroons will truck it out again.
Great run from the scrum by Cherry-Evans. He’s really trying hard out there.
By Jon Healy
59th minute: Three attempted backline shifts in those two sets and neither of them looked like doing anything but fall apart, which is exactly what happened.
