Blues fall short to send Origin series to a decider
The Ampol State of Origin series will be decided in Sydney after the Westpac NSW Blues fell agonisingly short to Queensland 26-24 in Game Two in Perth tonight.
The Blues nearly pulled off the greatest Origin comeback the game has ever seen after trailing 26-6 at half-time but ultimately paid the price for a disappointing first half where poor discipline saw them 8-0 down in the penalty count.
Their cause also wasn’t helped with the wet and greasy conditions at Optus Stadium making handling tough for both teams, but they should take confidence from their second-half fightback where they had the Maroons on the ropes before time ran out.
The Blues actually outscored their opponents five-tries-to-four but just as had been the case in Game One, goal kicking proved to be a challenge again. Winger Zac Lomax only managed to land two goals from five attempts but in his defence they were mostly from the sideline.
Blues captain Isaah Yeo said NSW had paid the price for a poor first half but he was looking forward to the opportunity to try and clinch the series in front of a home crowd at Accor Stadium on Wednesday 9 July.
“We just cruelled ourselves and we were compounding it as well,” Yeo said.
“We weren’t just applying any pressure and they were doing a really good job of hanging on to the ball, and off the back of it you get fatigued and when you’re on your try line for so long, tries will come out of that so that was really disappointing.
“I thought how we responded after half-time, we still had the utmost confidence in what we could do. We just needed to start better and just get a bit more set-for-set footy and I thought we could got a bit of momentum off the back of that.
“It’s disappointing because it was there to be taken but we’ve got a decider now at home and there’s nothing better than that.”
NSW started the match strongly after Maroons prop Tino Fa’asuamaleaui lost the ball and Blues five-eighth Jarome Luai put in an early kick which was toed ahead by Angus Crichton for an unmarked Brian To’o to plant the ball down. Lomax landed the conversion for a 6-0 lead.
Back-to-back penalties and set restarts for Queensland put them in prime attacking position and they made NSW pay for their ill-discipline when winger Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow scored in the corner. Valentine Holmes landed the conversion to lock the scores up at 6-all.
The Blues put themselves under pressure again when Dylan Edwards was ruled to have knocked on but back-rower Liam Martin wrestled the momentum back in his team’s favour when he crunched Fa’asuamaleaui in a tackle to force a turnover.
The Maroons returned serve when Martin lost the ball after colliding with Holmes and they made NSW pay when Tom Dearden put up a kick for Tabuai-Fidow to outleap To’o and grab the ball to score. Holmes landed another sideline conversion to take a 12-6 lead.
Queensland extended their lead to 14-6 through a penalty goal after Lomax resented the attention from lock Trent Loiero in a tackle and elbowed him in the head.
Another penalty against NSW for offside put Queensland on the attack again and hooker Harry Grant scampered out of dummy-half before finding captain Cameron Munster to score. Holmes landed the conversion to put the Maroons well in control at 20-6.
The first half went from bad to worse after Blues halfback Nathan Cleary had a try taken off him for obstruction in the lead-up and the Maroons found one instead after replacement Kurt Mann hit a hole and popped a pass for Kurt Capewell to crash over the line. Holmes landed the conversion to extend the lead to 26-6 at half-time.
NSW needed to create history to win the game with no team staging a second-half fightback after trailing by 20 points, but they started strongly when To’o dived over out wide. Lomax missed the conversion to leave the score at 12-10.
Back-to-back sets for NSW paid off when a backline move resulted in centre Stephen Crichton crashing his way through the goal-line defence to score. Lomax was presented with another tough conversion from the sideline and it bounced off the upright to leave the score at 26-14.
The Blues looked to be under all sorts of pressures when Queensland muscled up in defence to pin them in their own 20 metres, but a clearing kick from Luai was spilled by Tabuai-Fidow to let them off the hook.
NSW then made them pay when the Blues shifted the ball wide and To’o showed great strength and tenacity to bust his way through three tackles to score. Lomax faced another tough shot at goal from the sideline and he pushed the attempt wide to leave the score at 26-18.
Blues centre Latrell Mitchell came up with a big play after a one-on-one steal and they were quick to capitalise on the advantage after Luai put a grubber kick through for Angus Crichton to chase and plant down over the line. Lomax converted to have the Blues trailing 26-24.
That set up a frantic finish with just under 10 minutes remaining, but the Blues were unable to find the final play that would have sealed the series.
