📰 State of Origin I: New South Wales claim series opener

By Ben Francis

A dominant first half has propelled New South Wales to an 18-6 win over Queensland in the State of Origin series opener in front of 54,483 fans at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

While the scoreline suggests it was a somewhat close affair, it was anything but with New South Wales outscoring Queensland four tries to one with both teams’ goal kickers struggling off the tee. Nathan Cleary and Zac Lomax combined to go one from five for the Blues, while Valentine Holmes went one from two for the Maroons.

Attention now quickly turns to game two in Perth on June 18, which has not been a happy hunting ground for Queensland in recent years. Victory for New South Wales would see them claim back-to-back series wins for the first since 2018-19.

The match also marked the return of Laurie Daley as New South Wales coach for the first time since 2017, as he chases his second series win, having gone one from five in his first spell.

Wednesday’s win also provided a special milestone for the Blues, who claimed consecutive victories at Suncorp Stadium since 1997-98, something prop Payne Haas, who was named man-of-the-match, highlighted as a huge motivator for New South Wales.

“I’m just so proud to get the win to be honest with you, especially at Suncorp it’s so hard to win here, and we haven’t gone back-to-back at Suncorp for a while now,” he told Nine. “So, to do it with this group is so special and I just can’t wait for game two.

“We spoke about it [going back-to-back] at the start of the week, we knew we had a special a group here and we really wanted to do it.

“I just love playing with this group and love playing for our state and our people.”

Warriors co-captain Mitch Barnett, who is set to backup and face the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Sunday, put in a strong shift for New South Wales, playing 42 minutes, running for 110m and making 26 tackles.

The Blues’ win was built off a strong first half where nearly everything went their way, having nearly 60% possession as their forwards laid the platform and the outside back capitalising, scoring three tries, two for winger Lomax and one for Brian To’o.

A professional foul on the final play of the first half saw To’o sent to the sinbin for tackling Xavier Coates in the air and Holmes slotted a penalty goal to make it 14-2 at halftime.

The start of the second half was a back-and-forth affair and Queensland finally took advantage of having an extra player with Coates scoring off an error to Latrell Mitchell.

The Blues opted for the conservative approach after To’o returned to the field and the match became very tight with both sides threatening to score, but it was Blues fullback Dylan Edwards who scored in the 73rd minute to seal the win.

Holmes thought he’d scored a consolation in the final minute, from a ball over the top from Tom Dearden but the touch judge is adamant that the ball went forward.

One of the few positives for Queensland was the performance of rookie centre Rob Toia, who acquitted himself well after being handed the reins by coach Billy Slater just 10 games into his NRL career.

History is not in Queensland’s favour as the state that has lost the first game has come back to win the series just 11 times out of 42. If they are to defy the odds, they must now claim wins in Perth and Sydney.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.