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Queensland defied injury carnage to claim Origin series with a remarkable 22-12 win

(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

A brutal opening to the State of Origin decider hurt both teams but it was Queensland who defied the carnage to claim the series with a remarkable 22-12 win.

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NSW’s Cameron Murray was the first casualty as three players were knocked out of the game in the opening four minutes at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night.

The losses of Queensland pair Selwyn Cobbo and Lindsay Collins in a frenzied opening left the Maroons down to just two players on their interchange bench and scrambling to rearrange their team with 76 minutes still to play.

Despite those absences and a two-point halftime deficit, it was the Maroons who found a way to win the match with a typical never-say-die display.

Murray’s night ended in the second minute, staggering away after a head clash with Corey Oates following the Queensland winger’s first carry of the match.

It was what happened soon after that created havoc for the Maroons though.

Cobbo was left motionless on the ground after Kurt Capewell’s hip collected the young winger on the head in a Maroons’ group tackle on NSW centre Matt Burton.

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With the young winger being shielded by a teammate as he lay prone, posturing by NSW five-eighth Jarome Luai provoked a push-and-shove by both teams.

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Despite a stretcher being called for, Cobbo got to his feet, albeit in a neck brace, before being taken from the field.

Incredibly, within minutes of the game restarting a third man was knocked out of the match when Collins copped a stray elbow from Daniel Tupou after the Blues’ winger was hit so hard by Tom Gilbert he bounced away into the unfortunate Maroons prop.

With Capewell moving to centre and Dane Gagai taking Cobbo’s place on the wing, Collins’ absence meant Queensland’s middle forwards were facing a mountain of work.

Queensland struck first on the scoreboard, with Valentine Holmes scoring in the 12th minute before tries to Luai and NSW debutant Jacob Saifiti for the visitors.

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A Capewell try right on half-time reduced the deficit to two at the break before Queensland outfought, outran and outlasted NSW in a remarkable second-half display.

Kalyn Ponga put the Maroons ahead in the 60th minute and after NSW repelled several Queensland raids, Ben Hunt’s runaway winner in the 79th minute sealed the win and the series in another famous backs to the wall victory.

“We did in front of our fans, friends and family against all the odds and it makes it so special,” Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans said.

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Flankly 57 minutes 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
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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