State of Origin 2021: NSW Blues dominate Phil Rothfield’s Kangaroos Test team

If Mal Meninga is picking a Kangaroos side on merit, the Maroons would be lucky to get three in the team.

Cameron Murray is a warrior.

Don’t worry about the result … the days of the Queensland Maroons dominating green and gold jerseys with the Kangaroos are over.

If Mal Meninga is picking a Kangaroos merit team like he does each year, the Maroons would be lucky to get three in the team – front-rower Josh Papalii, five-eighth Cameron Munster and Kalyn Ponga on the bench.

The rest would be NSW Blues and deservedly so, despite the face-saving Maroons win on the Gold Coast in what was a good old-fashioned Origin scrap that went down to the wire.

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This is like the old days in reverse when Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston, Greg Inglis and all the Maroons champions in their extraordinary eight-year dominance walked straight into the Australian teams and Blues skipper Paul Gallen was the odd man out.

Right now it’s the Blues’ turn, despite the disappointment of failing to deliver the clean sweep.

After the game the TAB installed the Blues as $1.40 favourites to win next year’s series.

Cameron Murray deserves a Test jersey (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

And why wouldn’t they after a series score line of 94-26.

The Queensland performance was a monster improvement in all areas of their game.

Defence, attack, energy, effort and enthusiasm. Everything.

This allowed Daly Cherry Evans and Cameron Munster to do more with the football than in the opening two games of the series.

Munster is such a better play too without the crap in his game.

The Hammer, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, showed teenagers can handle it on this stage, even one-on-one with champions like Tom Trbojevic.

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Cameron Murray in a scuffle with Kalyn Ponga (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Seriously, it was a message for all those bagging the selection of Reece Walsh for game two in that he was supposedly too young and too raw.

The Hammer scored the Maroons’ first try, backing up Cameron Munster and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui to position himself beautifully to score.

The Blues so obviously missed the Penrith halves Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai.

Freddy Fittler and Greg Alexander went with Mitchell Moses and Jack Wighton despite calls for the South Sydney duo of Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker.

They both struggled for much of the first half to keep the cohesion, consistency and structure that was there with the Panthers boys. They looked so disjointed.

The Blues desperately missed Cleary’s leadership towards the end. He would have urged James Tedesco to play on rather than throw Latrell the ball for the penalty shot from near halfway.

The Maroons were super impressive.

For NSW Cameron Murray would be the first forward chosen in the Australian team.

The 23-year-old Rabbitohs forward was with the football in his hands and in defence. He is an absolute warrior.

The Blues are set to dominate the Kangaroos Test squad (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Murray has played six Origins and 94 NRL matches and will be a regular in Kangaroos for years to come. He was close enough to being the Blues’ best player.

Ben Hunt is a player who cops so much criticism but again showed his capabilities with an outstanding performance with two tries in the second-half.

And Paul Green … the coach who has been slammed and savaged for the most shambolic campaign in history. Well, suddenly he can coach. Suddenly the Maroons turned up to play for him.

But it was all too late. The Blues were the far superior side in this series.

Originally published as State of Origin 2021: NSW Blues dominate Phil Rothfield’s Kangaroos Test team