SPLASH LANDING
Maroons crash back to earth as Blues run riot in the wild west wet
QUEENSLAND’S hopes of reclaiming the Origin shield are in tatters after the rebuilt Blues last night dished out a 38-6 Maroons massacre to set up a pulsating series decider on Sydney soil.
State of Origin’s historic debut in Perth descended into Blue murder as a ground-record crowd of 59,721 at Optus Stadium witnessed one of the most dominant NSW displays in the concept’s 39-year history.
Eyeing an unassailable 2-0 lead, the Maroons were brutally mugged and mauled in midfield, dominated at the ruck and destroyed on the edges as NSW centre Tom Trbojevic’s hat-trick inspired a 32-point drubbing.
Queensland made 989 running metres to NSW’s 1736 in a centre-field disaster.
The six-tries-to-one carve-up leaves Queensland coach Kevin Walters needing to find answers to avert a second consecutive series loss in Origin III at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium on July 10.
Statistically, history suggests the Maroons can hit back. In the past two deciders held at Homebush, the Maroons have won both, first in 2008 and then in 2013 during coach Mal Meninga’s glorious 10-year reign.
But without champions such as Johnathan Thurston, Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis, the big question is whether this Maroons team has the class to halt the Blues on their patch.
NSW coach Brad Fittler entered this clash under siege after making seven changes, but his recall of Trbojevic and five-eighth James Maloney was emphatically vindicated.
The Maroons again fell behind early and slumped to an 18-6 halftime deficit before they were flogged 20-0 in a dismal second-half capitulation.
This was one of Queensland’s worst Origin performances since they suffered the most humiliating defeat in their history – a 56-16 rout at ANZ Stadium 19 years ago.
The Maroons sorely missed the workrate and energy of injured prop Jai Arrow, with Queensland badly beaten in the middlethird and never building enough pressure to trouble the Blues offensively.
While Trbojevic was the hat-trick hero, Maloney relished the big stage and fullback James Tedesco produced one of Origin’s great flick passes to comprehensively outpoint Maroons superstar rival Kalyn Ponga.
Forced to deploy wetweather football, Queensland were slower to adapt than the Blues, who belted the Maroons in midfield.