Maroons coach Billy Slater has emerged from the most intense State of Origin build-up of his career to orchestrate a gritty, enthralling and controversial upset to level the 2025 series.
On the eve of Origin II Slater was being widely lauded north of the Tweed for finally hitting back in the on-going “glass houses”, Aaron Woods public relations war of words against NSW.
By Wednesday morning he’d called a snap press conference on game day to publicly apologise to the family of previous Queensland coach Paul Green.
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Munster proud of the Maroons’ resilience | 02:42
From an outside point of view it appeared Billy was on tilt. A coach who had started out a genius by winning his opening two series was suddenly on the brink of spectacularly combusting as the Origin pressure gauge was continually cranked up.
A loss in Origin II for Queensland would have led to intense media scrutiny for Slater and the Maroons making it back-to-back series defeats.
Somehow Billy held his nerve and galvanised the side by ushering in a complete shake-up of nine positional changes from the disappointment of Origin I.
All of Slater’s selection room calls hit the mark. Cameron Munster was a genius appointment as captain because it made him go after the game with a vengeance.
The decision to make Daly Cherry-Evans the first Queensland captain to be axed mid-series since Trevor Gillmeister in 1996 proved a masterstroke with Munster and halfback Tommy Dearden completely carving it up in the opening 40 minutes for a 26-6 lead.
Kurt Capewell was lambasted for missing more tackles than other player in the NRL at club level but put him in a Maroon jumper and he tackled everything that moved on Queensland’s left edge including a rampaging Payne Haas in the closing stages with the Blues threatening to make it the biggest comeback in Origin history.
So too the call to move Reuben Cotter from the left side to Queensland’s right to try and contain the dangerous Angus Crichton.
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The switch of wingers Xavier Coates and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow also came up trumps with the Hammer bagging a double in the opening half as the Maroons went on the tear.
Similar story for the decision to bench Pat Carrigan and start Trent Loiero.
Without doubt the other hugely controversial narrative of the night was the 8-0 penalty count against the Blues in the opening half.
Fair play, Jarome Luai deserved to get pinged for his facial on Cotter and Zac Lomax did get Loeiro flush with an elbow in the temple but 8-0 in an Origin game is a ridiculously lopsided count.
Anyhow, we move on to Origin III at Accor Stadium for the series decider.
Will referee Ashley Klein survive? That’s the million-dollar question.
The Blues threatened to orchestrate the biggest comeback in State of Origin history in the second half but fell agonisingly short.
Forget the glorified club game of Origin I, this was more like the State of Origin football we’ve come to know and love even it was played in torrential rain with numerous errors from both sides.
Munster, channelling Maroons champion Wally Lewis, was up for the occasion and gallantly led the Queensland onslaught in the opening half.
There’s no question the Blues missed Mitch Moses and Mitch Barnett, with replacement five-eighth Jarome Luai putting the first kick of the game out on the full and giving away three penalties.
Barnett’s physical presence was clearly absent in the opening half while Moses kicking game would have been the perfect foil given Nathan Cleary was carrying a groin injury.
‘I cant tell you what I honestly think’ | 09:14
The Blues were forced to share the kicking duties between Luai and Latrell Mitchell for much of the opening half with gun no.7 Clearly carrying a groin injury into the contest.
Ultimately NSW scored five tries to four but winger Lomax could only manage to kick only two goals from five attempts with one hitting the post.
This is unusual for Lomax who was a rock in last year’s series nailing several pressure conversions to tip the advantage to the Blues.
The Maroons upset result sets up an epic series decider in Sydney on July 9.
What were your likes or dislikes from Origin II?
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