A 52,000 strong crowd at Suncorp didn’t phase the Blues who put on a dominant performance and took out the State of Origin decider by 18 points last night.
The series began with a controversial comeback Blues win who took advantage of a red card handed to Kaylyn Ponga and scored the winning points in the final 90 seconds of the game.
The Maroons made a statement in game two, putting on a dominant performance at the MCG with a 20-point victory to send the series to a decider.
Nathan Cleary was the first to strike last night, opening up the scoring with a try in the 14th minute before following it up again in the 26th minute to break the game wide open.
Queensland did everything they could to put on a comeback but were sold short, failing to kick any of their three conversion chances while New South Wales kicked all five of theirs.
A no-try call made a difficult task impossible with 11 minutes to go – Max Plath ruled offside in the kick chase before the ball was regathered to crush Queensland hearts and rob them of a try.
It was Cleary who was awarded the Wally Lewis Medal after he took out the man of the match performances in both Blues wins.
NRL expert James Sullivan joined Sports Breakfast this morning.
“I was having an argument with my sons last night watching it and they’re going, ‘oh he’s you know, he’s immortal’ and I’ve said well, well, well settle down, but he has ticked that box,” he said.
Liam Martin wore his heart on his sleeve, shutting down Cameron Munster and Sam Walker to keep Queensland’s attack at bay.
“Martin made a big, big difference, in particular to Moses and Cleary, because he protects them.”
“You’d love to be in his company and he is passionate. He’s just one of those good country blokes, but I’ll tell you what, doesn’t he just love going at the half backs? He kept Munster and Walker quiet all night.”
It was the Blues’ ability to use the width of the field which allowed them to find space and gain meterage to win the match.
“We call it the ruckspeed… they were going two passes wide all the time, which negates the marker for one. And obviously you can get a bit of a roll on with those bigger forwards.
The victory sends a message to Queensland fans – New South Wales winning at Suncorp the last three times they went up north.
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