Robbie Farah opens up on his injury, Paul Gallen's stoush with Nate Myles and State of Origin II

EXCLUSIVE COLUMN: I'VE lost count of the times I've broken my nose - I think three this year and five last year.

I'VE lost count of the amount of times I've broken my nose - I think that's three this year on top of five last year.

I've never had a cheekbone fracture before.

I was in a tackle early in Wednesday's State of Origin game, I reeled away and was in a daze for a second.

I felt my nose, then my face, but wasn't quite sure what had happened. I just got on with the game - it's sore, but you're out there and it's Origin.

It wasn't until after the game, when the adrenalin left and I cooled down, that my face really started to hurt. It felt like it was about to explode.

I didn't feel too good after the game, but was certainly satisfied. You just do whatever it takes to get the win, all those other things don't matter.

Origin - there is so much emotion involved in it.

Sometimes things spill over on the field. As a player, you never think too much about the consequences out there.

That's what makes Origin such a great arena and why people love it.

Take the incident with Paul Gallen and Nate Myles.

That was two competitors, tough players, just sorting out their differences on the field.

Gal got in with the first punch. It wasn't a dog shot. They were standing toe to toe.

To his credit, the way Nate handled it was great. As he said, that's footy and that's Origin. On with the game.

As for public discussion about double standards in the rules from Origin to NRL, that's not for us to decide.

It played out as it did. We want to move on.

Those moments are to be expected from Gal, as was his performance. He'd been out of footy for a month injured, but you'd never have known.

He led by example all night, as you need from your captain.

Luke Lewis came back from injury to put in one of the best performances of his career.

Mitchell Pearce was terrific, so too Jimmy Maloney, Jarryd Hayne, Michael Jennings - take your pick.

We can definitely improve our execution and ball-handling come Origin II.

But our attitude to start the game was second to none. If we can start like that again in Brisbane it would be unreal.

Queensland will definitely be better in Origin II. They are a different beast at Suncorp.

They'll use all the motivation they can from Origin I, the incident with Gal included.

They'll be baying for blood, but that's what makes Origin so great. We got one over them and they'll be looking to get one back.