Civoniceva ponders mistakes

AFTER five years of dominance, it took just four minutes for Queensland’s historic quest for a sixth State of Origin series victory to nearly hit a speed bump.

Petero Civoniceva. Picture: Barry Leddicoat

AFTER five years of dominance, it took just four minutes for Queensland’s historic quest for a sixth State of Origin series victory to nearly hit a speed bump.

The Maroons were leading 10-0 and looking to land the killer blow in Origin I at Suncorp Stadium heading into the final 15 minutes.

But a defensive miss from Queensland stalwart Petero Civoniceva allowed Greg Bird to offload to Blues halfback Mitchell Pearce, who bagged New South Wales’ first points of the night.

Four minutes later, Michael Jennings cut through a gaping hole, dummying past Maroons custodian Billy Slater to give the Blues a two-point lead with just 10 minutes to go.

Queensland, as it so often does, fought back, with Slater grabbing the match-winning try, but Civoniceva, a veteran of 28 Origins, says the Maroons cannot let themselves fall into a similar situation again next Wednesday night.

“They’ve showed in certain stages they can definitely put it to us and they almost had us there for that small part of the game,” he said.

“We didn’t help ourselves. We moved away from our game plan.

“What worked for us was just grinding our way down the field and on the back of a good kicking game we were able to build some really good momentum.

“We probably shifted away from that and tried to find an easier way to do it.

“State of Origin, there’s no easy ways. You’ve just got to graft out the tough metres and get into a real arm wrestle.”

Matt Scott produced one of the “best front-row performances” Civoniceva had seen to give Queensland ascendancy and a 6-0 lead early in the match.

There was no denying, however, that Queensland failed to register the points despite having a mountain of possession deep in NSW’s half.

“There’s some things we need to work on and our combinations were down a little bit,” Civoniceva admitted.

“Our execution was down and when you have that many opportunities, you’ve really got to put the opposition to the sword.

“There’s some things we’ll work on and we all acknowledge that. We know that we can get that done.”

Queensland’s left-side combination of Greg Inglis and Darius Boyd has delivered several Origin highlights in recent years and Civoniceva says Inglis’s return to the squad may be just what the Maroons need to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead.

“The player that he (Inglis) is, he just brings those champion qualities only he can bring,” Civoniceva said.

Originally published as Civoniceva ponders mistakes