State of Origin 2016: Justin O’Neill and Corey Oates get off to winning start

THEY were thrown into the Origin cauldron and Maroons rookies Justin O’Neill and Corey Oates stood tall.

Justin O’Neill did the job at right centre.

THEY don’t build television news highlights around defence, but Justin O’Neill’s teammates were left in no doubt about his massive contributions to Queensland’s defiant 6-4 win.

O’Neill won his spurs as a Maroon well and truly in the 21st minute of his tour of duty with a ball-and-all tackle on try-bound Michael Jennings which stopped his opposite number as if a handbrake had been applied.

The Cowboys right centre, given his chance when Will Chambers was injured after Justin Hodges had retired, also adjusted beautifully when Blues winger Josh Mansour cut inside threateningly against Queensland’s sliding tryline defence and finished with 20 tackles.

For Queensland’s matchwinning try, O’Neill’s quick hands, matching those of fullback Darius Boyd to his left when the Maroons playmakers had run the ball on the last tackle, released his wing mate Dane Gagai.

By such margins are Origin matches decided.

O’Neill’s first-game combination with Gagai resembled one forged over a career together and included Gagai’s balletic flick back inside to the Maroons centre when James Maloney’s last-ditch line drop out neared the sideline.

Gagai has now scored two tries from as many Origin matches, one more than Wendell Sailor could manage in 14 games. It just goes to show how the Maroons jersey can cast stars from unexpected circumstances, such as the Knights side unable to show Gagai in a good light.

O’Neill, likewise, has had his self-belief challenged, by the decision of the Storm to allow him to leave Melbourne in 2014, two years after he was a grand-final tryscorer for a premiership team.

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Hughenden and Townsville, the communities where O’Neill lived before becoming an NRL player, felt the nerves and tantalising opportunity of an Origin night just that bit more keenly than communities who had not sent locals into the battle.

The same went for Biloela and Baralaba, where Corey Oates was born and bred respectively.

Oates, playing after a health scare a week earlier and the recent death of his grandfather, contributed handily with his hit-ups out of his own end of the field, tallying 115m from 15 carries. A scalp wound in the first half was his memento of a task carried out manfully in trying times.

NSW’s four first-gamers were South Sydney halfback Adam Reynolds, Penrith pair Matt Moylan and Mansour, and Manly’s Dylan Walker, the hotly-debated selection for the game who uneventfully played only the last 10 minutes.

Corey Oates was solid in his Origin debut.

They and the other 13 Blues all wore “The Star’’ across their back which seemed a little presumptuous until it was worked out that it was a corporate sponsorship.

Moylan, who many Sydney pundits believed would create a “star is born’’ headlines, instead was a black hole when exposed to the pressure of two Cooper Cronk bombs.

Moylan and right winger Blake Ferguson had a communication breakdown over who was going to apprehend a Cronk midfield bomb in the first half. After spilling the ball on impact from Thurston’s tackle, the Panthers fullback was able to drag it gratefully back to himself to concede a dropout.

Moylan opened the second half by spilling a Cronk bomb, but was saved by the cover defence of Maloney, who cut down Gagai.

Reynolds did not control the game as hoped, with Robbie Farah being NSW’s most effective kicker for distance and in last-tackle options.

With Queensland leading by two with 11 minutes left, Reynolds’s bomb was mis-hit and provided an easy, uncontested catch by Greg Inglis.