Resurgent Blues serve up Origin hiding
New South Wales coach Brad Fittler has been left looking like a genius again as NSW humiliated
Queensland, 38-6 in a State of Origin thumping in Perth.
The Blues pulled off their second biggest victory in the history of State of Origin, levelling the series with an emphatic victory behind three tries from Manly’s Tom Trbojevic.
They’ll now head to Sydney in two weeks for the series decider bursting with confidence while the result leaves the Maroons shell-shocked after they conceded 32 unanswered points
The Blues got off to the perfect start on Sunday night, racing out to a 18-6 lead at halftime.
New South Wales shut the door on Queensland with 20 minutes still to play in a famous Origin thrashing when Josh Addo-Carr’s 57th minute try made it five tries to one for the Blues and took NSW’s lead out to 32-6.
The Blues found a hole in the Maroons’ right edge defence when Wade Graham put a neat kick into the in-goal.
Addo-Carr then won the race to dive on the loose ball.
The try completed 20 minutes of total domination from the Blues.
“It is officially a smash up,” Maroons legend Paul Vautin said.
“They are running riot in the second half on the back of six penalties, all legitimate penalties. Field position. And the amount of ball they have had.
“They are just giving it to them.” Addo-Carr made it a double in the final 10 minutes when Damien Cook again orchestrated a line-break down the Maroons’ struggling right edge.
Cook identified an overlap where the Maroons were caught two defenders short.
He then got on the outside of Daly Cherry-Evans before the Blues passed through a series of hands out to AddoCarr on the wing.
It took NSW to a thumping 38-6 lead, the second biggest Blues margin ever seen in State of Origin.
● New South Wales 38 (Tom Trbojevic 3, Josh Addo-Carr 2, Tyson Frizell tries; Nathan Cleary 2 cons; James Maloney 3 cons, 2 pens) Queensland 6 (Will Chambers (penalty) try; Kalyn Ponga con)