State of Origin 2021: Phil Rothfield’s highlights, lowlights and talking points from game 3

It’s a shame the record-breaking Blues didn’t get to celebrate in a manner befitting their heroics. BUZZ’S HIGHS, LOWS

Blues fans show their support on the Gold Coast (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Sports Editor-at-large Phil Rothfield runs his rule over State of Origin game 3.

HIGHLIGHT

Origin game without a blowout scoreline. Finally Queensland produced some good old-fashioned Maroons spirit. It was a million times better than their performances in the opening two games.

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LOWLIGHT

The refereeing of Gerard Sutton and all the six-again calls. This was ridiculously over the top.

LOWLIGHT II

Covid preventing Blues heroes Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai and Daniel Saifiti from joining the series winning celebrations in front of a Queensland crowd.

BLATCHYS BLUES RESCUE

NSW Blues players ensured they at least had some support on the Gold Coast. Every player took to social media on Tuesday afternoon to do a call to arms to Blatchys Blues. The result was 1000 tickets sold in 40 minutes to NSW fans living in south-east Queensland or on the far NSW north coast.

Blues fans show their support on the Gold Coast (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

MONEY MAN LATRELL

There is no doubting the popularity of South Sydney Rabbitohs superstar Latrell Mitchell. Latrell held 40 per cent of the money from TAB punters on the man-of-the-match award. One punter was giving Manly’s Tom Trbojevic a huge cheer. He had $10,000 on Turbo after game one at $3.50 to win the Wally Lewis Medal as player of the series.

Latrell Mitchell crosses for the first try of the game. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

NO LOSING THEIR HEADS

The Blues headed back to their Kingscliff headquarters after the game to quietly celebrate the series win. It was never going to be a huge night because the players were scheduled to get on a bus at 11am to join their NRL club sides in various hubs in south-east Queensland.

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99 NOT OUT

NRL Hall-of-Famer Ray Warren called his 99th State of Origin game for Channel 9 on Wednesday night from TV monitors at the network’s North Sydney Studios. No doubt Channel 9 will be doing everything possible to convince Rabs to hold off retirement to crack the century next year.

SPOTTED

NRL commissioners Megan Davis and Kate Jones hosting the NRL corporate suite on the Gold Coast in the absence of Peter V’landys, Andrew Abdo and Peter Beattie.

360 VIEW

NRL 360 will have a special edition on Fox League at 6.30pm on Thursday night hosted by Yvonne Sampson and Paul Kent with Maroons legend Cooper Cronk, the great Brent Read and the State of Origin coaches.