State of Origin 2023: Queensland Maroons claim back-to-back series victories over NSW Blues
Billy Slater has turned Queensland into a footballing juggernaut after his mighty Maroons wrapped-up the 2023 series in straight sets with a ruthless 32-6 belting of the Blues.
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He was a super player. Now he is an Origin super coach.
Billy Slater has turned Queensland into a footballing juggernaut after his mighty Maroons wrapped-up the 2023 series in straight sets with a ruthless 32-6 belting of the Blues in Origin II at Suncorp Stadium.
But the Maroons masterclass ended in chaos with Queensland fullback Reece Walsh and NSW rival Jarome Luai sensationally sent-off for headbutting each other in a moment of madness just 21 seconds from full-time.
NSW winger Josh Addo-Carr was also sin-binned for entering the melee as the Blues imploded in a loss that could finish Brad Fittler as an Origin coach.
Before 52,433 rabid fans, the Maroons scuppered any threat of a NSW uprising, nailing the sky-blue coffin shut to take an unassailable 2-0 lead and give Slater back-to-back series triumphs as Queensland coach.
Now Slater will order his troops to go for NSW’s jugular by plotting the Maroons’ first 3-0 ‘Blue Rinse’ since Mal Meninga’s marauders of 2010.
Queensland have produced just four 3-0 clean sweeps (1988, 1989, 1995 and 2010) in Origin’s 43-year history and they can make it No.5 by breaking the Blues’ soul in Game Three in Sydney on July 12.
“Proud is an understatement,” Slater said.
“They keep raising the bar.
“There’s no excuses in this team, this team is only just getting started.”
Of Walsh’s send off, he said: “That’s Origin, it boiled over a bit. They went after him, ‘Foxx’ (Addo-Carr) went after him and they had a go at him all game. Reece has to get used to it, but what a series he has had.”
SUPER SLATER
Slater has now won four of five games as Origin coach and with a slew of young guns at his disposal, the Maroons can build another glorious, Meninga-like dynasty.
This was a clinical, classical, compelling performance by Queensland.
Buoyed by their 26-18 win in Game One, the Maroons weathered an early NSW storm with defensive granite before Daly Cherry-Evans engineered a six-tries-to-one massacre headlined by Valentine Holmes’ double.
Whiz-kid Walsh (114 metres, seven tackle busts and two try assists) was again superb, while Lindsay Collins, Pat Carrigan and Reuben Cotter set up victory with lion-hearted defensive displays.
“Billy has been a huge part of it, he has been a massive part of our success,” Cherry-Evans said.
CHERRY RIPE
Cherry-Evans will be enshrined as a Queensland Origin hero after this mesmeric captain’s knock.
Playing his 21st Origin game, the talismanic halfback tabled the finest performance of his Queensland career.
It wasn’t just his craft, calmness and expert game management. It was his leadership and play for the ages in the 31st minute when he produced one of the great Origin cover tackles, sprinting 70 metres across field to mow down trybound NSW centre Stephen Crichton.
“I felt like I was running on a treadmill,” Cherry-Evans said. “You just have to keep moving your feet and if you do that, you put yourself in a position like that.”
MAROONS BRICK WALL
If defence wins Origin games, Queensland’s effort without the ball clinched the series.
Just like Origin I, the Blues had a mountain of good ball but Billy’s Bravehearts were as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China. They harassed, scrapped, scrambled and suffocated NSW’s attack into submission.
The Blues had 54 tackles to Queensland’s 17 in the opposition half, but NSW went to halftime with a golden duck as the Maroons defended like demons.
“I have to hand it to their defence,” Fittler said. “We never really looked like we were going to break them.”
Holmes scores his second! ✌#Originpic.twitter.com/HexUYggyyB
— NRL (@NRL) June 21, 2023
VALENTINE’S DAY
So often the quiet achiever of the Maroons, Valentine Holmes is on track to become the greatest tryscorer in Origin history.
His two-try haul saw him become the third highest tryscorer with 13 from 14 games, leaving Holmes behind only Darius Boyd (17) and Greg Inglis (18) as Origin’s king of four-pointers.
The Maroons centre pounced on a loose Cherry-Evans bomb to open the scoring in the ninth minute and when he crossed four minutes after halftime for 16-0, the battered Blues were on the Suncorp canvas.
Originally published as State of Origin 2023: Queensland Maroons claim back-to-back series victories over NSW Blues
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