Blues wrap up the Origin Series

New South Wales have wrapped up this year’s State of Origin series after a crushing 32-10 victory over Queensland in the third and deciding match held in Brisbane tonight.

In the 25th anniversary of State of Origin rugby league, the Blues secured a memorable 2-1 series win and, for the first time, move ahead of the Maroons in head-to-head wins. A large majority of the 52,436 fans at Suncorp Stadium watched in horror as NSW scored six tries to demoralise a surprisingly lacklustre Maroon outfit.

Halfback Andrew Johns was again the architect for NSW, continually taking the correct option to catch out a bamboozled Queensland defence, but it was fullback Anthony Minichiello who shaded Johns for man-of-the-match as well as man-of-the-series honours. Luke Bailey and Ben Kennedy led the way in the forwards and Matt King chalked up a hat-trick in a what has been an impressive debut series for the Melbourne Storm winger.

Queensland totally dominated the opening moments of the match, attacking the NSW line for the first five minutes. But a Darren Lockyer grubber kick close to the NSW tryline was poorly directed and Anthony Minichiello swooped, sprinting 80 metres up field before being wrapped up by his opposite number, Matt Bowen. Matt Sing then conceded a penalty after jumping on Minichiello late and was fortunate not to be sent to the sin-bin.

But the Blues soon opened the scoring after another infringement, this time in front of goal, gifted two points to sharpshooter Craig Fitzgibbon in the 9th minute. From this point on, NSW looked the more dangerous side while the Maroons struggled to make the most of their attacking opportunities.

The Blues soaked up more Queensland pressure over then next ten minutes and responded with the first try, Braith Anasta running onto a short pass from Johns close to the line and powering over. The conversion from Johns gave NSW an 8-0 lead after 20 minutes.

The second NSW try of the night came in the 27th minute after Tonie Carroll dropped the ball in the centre of the ground and was punished by the Blues in the next set of six. Andrew Johns placed a high kick to the right of the posts and Mark Gasnier flew above the flat-footed Maroon defenders to extend the lead to 14-0.

Queensland gave away another penalty after the restart when Michael Crocker swung an open hand into Ben Kennedy’s chin, the incident going on report. After the resultant push-and-shove, the Blues set up another try, their third against the Maroons left side defence. Andrew Johns kept the ball alive with a pass to Minichiello who found Matt King on the outside of his opponent and sent him dashing down the touch line to score.

Down 18-0 after the first half, Queensland endeavoured to hit back early in the second but after seven minutes, the dream was over. A loose pass in their own half allowed Matt King to flip Shaun Berrigan into touch near the Maroon line. From the ensuing scrum, King scored his second try on the last tackle with an angled run splitting Queensland’s defence and breaking their spirit.

To their credit, Queensland kept searching for a first try to revive some hope but suffered from a combination of poor ball handling and tough NSW defence. Brad Thorn lost possession close to the NSW line and another loose pass from a kick return was collected by the Blues and ended with Timana Tahu finishing off in the left corner.

If the heartbroken locals thought things could not get worse at 28-0 down, Matt King collected his third try of the night in the 65th minute to stretch NSW's massive lead out to 32-0.

The Maroons eventually crossed for two consolation tries through Johnathan Thurston and Matt Bowen but could not prevent NSW from registering their biggest ever win in Queensland.

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