Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Munster injury further sours bad night for Queensland in Perth

(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Cameron Munster could miss Queensland’s State of Origin series decider after hurting his shoulder in their heavy Perth defeat.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Maroons five-eighth will have scans on his left shoulder on Monday after a collision early in the second half of their 44-12 loss at Optus Stadium rendered him a “passenger”.

Game three is in Brisbane on July 13, Munster was unable to say with any confidence that he’ll be fit to play in what looms as a monster setback for coach Billy Slater.

“I was a bit of a passenger out there (after the injury),” Munster said.

“My body’s not holding up as good as I’d like it to be, but fingers crossed I can get myself right.

“I’ll get a scan tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”

Munster was man-of-the-match in Sydney’s 16-10 win but was nullified by a dominant NSW pack that allowed Blues’ halfback Nathan Cleary to thrive.

If Munster isn’t fit to play it could pave the way for North Queensland playmaker Tom Dearden’s debut, or the versatile Ben Hunt could be shifted from hooker to partner Daly Cherry-Evans in the halves.

Queensland had led 12-8 late in the first half before a string of penalties led to Felise Kaufusi’s sin-binning and a Brian To’o try.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related

Weight of possession and territory – NSW enjoyed 71 per cent territory and had 33 tackles inside Queensland’s 20m zone to the Maroons’ six – eventually told in a five-try second half.

“Everything (went wrong) by the looks of it, a bit of a flogging,” Munster said.

“We matched it in the first half, felt we were the better side, but momentum changed and their little moments turned into big moments.”

Cleary scored twice and set up two tries, while his in-game kicking tormented Queensland’s young wingers Murray Taulagi and Selwyn Cobbo.

ADVERTISEMENT

“In the first game he wasn’t up to par for himself, is what he said, and obviously proved his critics wrong tonight,” Munster said.

“He’s a good quality player … but we made him look good.

“We gave him too much time and space and someone like that, nine times out of 10 they’ll take their opportunity.”

Second-gamer Jeremiah Nanai also missed a one-on-one tackle on Jarome Luai that led to a try, coach Slater admitting most Queensland players would be reflecting on costly errors as he weighs up the possibility of changes.

“I’m not going to bag out my teammates,” Munster said of suggestions their forward pack were soundly beaten.

“We were all poor, need to be better. We had a great opportunity to seal the series and we fell short.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING ‘It’s about his career’: Why NRL star Payne Haas could jump codes ‘It’s about his career’: Why NRL star Payne Haas could jump codes
Search