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What Cherry-Evans told his Queensland side after losing two players in four minutes

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Keep calm and carry on.

That was the simple message Queensland skipper Daly Cherry-Evans delivered to his Maroons team after one of the most brutal starts to a State of Origin match ever seen.

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After just four minutes of mayhem at Wednesday’s series decider in Brisbane, both teams had lost players to head knocks.

NSW’s Cameron Murray as well as Queensland pair Selwyn Cobbo and Lindsay Collins were all out of the game before the match had really even started, setting the tone for a pulsating encounter which had the Maroons defying the odds to win the series with a 22-12 victory.

The victory was secured in a second half which the undermanned Queenslanders dominated against more-favoured opponents, scoring two tries to none in a contest that also included Matt Burton and Dane Gagai being sin-binned after throwing punches at each other in an on-field brawl.

Cherry-Evans was in tears after the win before going on the stage to lift the shield for the second time as Queensland captain.

He said telling his teammates to refocus and keep their heads after the tumultuous start had been a key to overcoming the odds.

“We felt like the team that remained the calmest was going to win,” Cherry-Evans said.

“The team that reverted back to just playing footy was going to win because there was so many different things out there that changed the game from head knocks to sin bins.

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“Those things can really impact a game of footy and just the team that comes out the other side playing the smarter game (prevails) and we did that.

“We played a style that wore them down by the end.”

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The win ended a drama-filled build-up for the Maroons which began on Friday with star playmaker Cameron Munster and winger Murray Taulagi both testing positive for COVID-19.

That forced the entire camp into lockdown at the Gold Coast resort before tests cleared the rest of the squad to play.

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With Munster and Taulagi out, Corey Oates was rushed into the camp and Tom Dearden thrust into a starting halves position alongside Cherry-Evans.

The halfback said a quick coffee with Dearden convinced him the North Queensland rookie was ready for the Origin stage.

“As soon as we knew he was playing we went for a coffee and he asked as many questions as he could to just feel comfortable and straightaway I knew from from the smiles and the nods he was giving me that he was going to be alright,” Cherry-Evans said.

The win means NSW still have only ever won two deciders in Brisbane in Origin history, and Cherry-Evans was clearly proud to have replicated the feats of past teams.

“There’s something just about when you come into camp, you’ve got a responsibility and it’s not a daunting responsibility, it’s a responsibility that makes you excited and grateful for where you are,” he said.

“There’s a lot of history that’s gone before us.

“We unpacked a lot of that this week.

“We just knew that based on all of those Queensland moments, it was our turn to produce one. That was as simple as it was.”

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Flankly 51 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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