A brave CABE NSW U19s Men’s side has gone down 23-22 to Queensland in an enthralling battle for the annual Ampol State of Origin honors at Sunshine Coast Stadium tonight.
Queensland led 13-6 at half-time but NSW staged a courageous second half fightback only to have the lead snatched away with five minutes to go.
The match started with Queensland taking control in the first half with and without the ball in hand, dominating through the middle and proving to be a handful for NSW.
Queensland lock Cooper Bai opened the scoring in the ninth minute, barging his way over the line despite best efforts by NSW to hold the player up in goal.
The lead was extended out to 12 points in the next 10 minutes through second rower Zac Garton who dove over in the corner.
Things went from bad to worse for NSW when second rower Jordan Uta was sent to the bin for 10 minutes for a shoulder charge, leaving his team down to 12 men for the remainder of the first half.
Despite being short a player, NSW was the next to hit back through five eighth Toby Rodwell. He passed a short ball out to second rower Jacob Halananghu who crossed, closing the deficit to six.
Doing well to hold Queensland out towards the back end of the half, Queensland halfback Coby Black was able to kick a field goal just before half-time to bring the score to 13-6.
Queensland didn’t take their foot off the pedal early in the second half, putting pressure on the NSW defence before Cody Black found space out on the right edge to cross for Queensland’s third try of the night.
Cleaning up their discipline which continued to plague their attack, NSW marched themselves up the field into Queensland territory before Rodwell kicked on the fifth for fullback Connor Votano to regather and offload to forward Cyrus Stanley-Traill to score.
With the comeback well and truly on, NSW found themselves only trailing by five with 20 minutes remaining.
Off the back of strong attack, NSW once again found themselves only 10m out from the try line and prop Cody Hopwood took full advantage of the field position crashing his way over for a four-pointer. A great conversion from Votano saw NSW take the lead for the first time in the game.
Holding all the momentum, NSW weren’t done yet, with the left edge making a break down the sideline, the ball was passed to Jaxson Allen who raced away with the ball to bring the score to 22-17.
With five minutes to go, Queensland refused to back down, shifting the ball out to centre Prestyn Laine-Sietu who crossed out wide. A successful conversion from five eighth Javon Andrews saw Queensland back in front by a point 23-22.
Despite their best efforts, NSW found themselves defending their line for the final minutes of the game, going down by a point at full-time.
