State of Origin 2018: Baby Blues show their true grit in hard-fought dead rubber
THEY came into the series as Brad Fittler’s Baby Blues. But with one of the most inspiring defensive efforts ever seen in State of Origin, NSW showed why the future is bright.
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THEY came into the series as Brad Fittler’s baby Blues.
And even though they missed out on the series clean sweep at Suncorp Stadium, Fittler’s bold new generation showed exactly why NSW’s future is in good hands.
With one of the bravest and most inspiring defensive efforts ever seen in State of Origin, a Blue brick walk defied an astonishing first half possession deficit to push Queensland to the absolute limit over an absorbing 80 minute contest.
Darren Lockyer labelled it “one of the most entertaining Origin’s to watch” while Paul Gallen called the first half from the Blues “as good as defensive effort as I have ever seen”.
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It was enormous just for the Blues to be still in the game, let alone leading 12-8 at the break.
But ultimately the workload was always going to come back at them and that’s exactly what happened.
On the back of a Tariq Sims brain explosion when he tackled Ben Hunt at marker while the Blues were in possession, Queensland scored twice in the space of seven minutes to snatch the lead back.
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They had another chance denied when David Klemmer tripped Hunt when Angus Crichton would have scored.
In 80 minutes, those two plays were the ones NSW will look back on with great regret.
But they still should return home proud of that effort.
There were some tremendous performances all over the park from both teams.
For NSW none were better than James Tedesco at fullback and Tom Trbojevic was equally outstanding, running for a game high 235m, while his brother Jake clocked up 43 tackles to lead the way in the middle.
Damien Cook also had a terrific game at dummy half, charging for 76m and making 37 tackles.
But you factor in the amount of possession Queensland had in the opening 40 minutes _ and the fact NSW had James Maloney sent to the sin bin for a professional foul on Billy Slater in the 30th minute _ and it was just an astonishing performance to get as close as they ultimately did.
At halftime the Maroons had a stunning 72-38 per cent split of the ball and the Blues had been forced to make almost twice as many tackles, 156 tackles to Queensland’s 87.
Queensland’s decision to take the two points instead of go for the try, when they led 6-0 following Maloney’s sin binning, kept the Blues in the contest.
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Tom Trbojevic snatched a loose pass from Cameron Munster to race the field for an intercept try.
And then right on the stroke of halftime Cook and Tedesco combined brilliantly to sneak a second try against the odds.
Gallen said at halftime: “They defended for 35 minutes and the majority of it on their try line.
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“(Queensland) never even looked like cracking their line to be honest.
“If the Blues are to go on and win this it will be on the back of that defensive effort. That is as good as I’ve ever seen.”
Unfortunately, it never turned out that way.
But even so, NSW has finally put the full stop on Queensland’s mighty era of domination.
And now we look forward to next year with the foundations for NSW’s future already
in place _ and the State of Origin shield back in NSW’s possession.