Blues’ big finish seals first blood
THE baby Blues last night started their march towards history with a bold, decisive 22-12 win over Queensland in State of Origin I at the MCG.
Before a bumper crowd of 87,122, NSW went one up through the calmness and composure of its 11 debutants.
Led by a scintillating performance from NSW fullback James Tedesco, NSW scored four tries to leave Queensland’s dynasty on life support.
NSW will now aim to seal the series in front of its home crowd at ANZ Stadium on June 24.
Victory can be directed squarely at the unconventional selection policy of Blues coach Brad Fittler.
He threw away the veterans and picked an excited bunch of kids who did NSW proud last night.
And the rookies excelled; each and every one of them.
A new dawn has arrived for the maligned Blues.
Despite running on to the MCG to mostly jeers, a raucous chant of ‘New South Wales, New South Wales’ echoed around the ground near full-time.
Queensland found out first- hand what life is about without Cam Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk. Try as they did, the Maroons lacked the guile to win in the clutch moments.
The Maroons have manipulated, embarrassed, crushed and shamed the Blues over the years. There will be no sympathy for them now in NSW.
Last night only reinforced State of Origin is up there with the greatest sporting events on the Australian sporting calendar.
NSW started the match as the shortest priced favourite ($1.40) since 1999, according to the TAB. It didn’t let the punters down.
NSW 22 (Addo-Carr, Mitchell, Tedesco, T. Trbojevic tries, Maloney 3 goals) d QUEENSLAND 12 (Gagai, Holmes tries, Holmes 2 goals) at MCG. Crowd: 87,122.