Maroons training session reveals where Queensland kick-off is going after Spencer Leniu drama

The stage is set for one of the most anticipated kick-offs in State of Origin history with a Queensland training session revealing the direction they intend to launch the football in Game 2.

Over to you, Spencer.

The stage is set for one of the most anticipated kick-offs in State of Origin history with a Queensland scrimmage session revealing the direction they intend to launch the football in game two on Wednesday night.

The kick-off direction of the Maroons is an open invitation for NSW Blues enforcer Spencer Leniu to position himself in readiness for the most brutal and physically challenging carries of the football on a rugby league field.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Maroons conducted a simulated match on the Sunshine Coast on Thursday where it’s understood Maroons centre Valentine Holmes kicked the ball deep and to the right-hand corner of the field.

Being a right-foot kicker, Holmes has a natural left-to-right swing to his kick, which has resulted in the 29-year-old predominantly landing the ball from kick-offs into the right-hand corner.

Spencer Leniu let his thoughts be known after Queensland kicked to the opposite side of the field after he joined the contest.

That is the same area of the field where Holmes kicked the football in Origin I and which sparked Leniu into gesturing and goading the Maroons for failing to kick the ball to him.

Leniu had been standing in the left side in-goal in readiness to carry the football back into the Maroons defensive line when Holmes kicked the ball into the opposite right-side, where NSW prop Max King then returned the ball instead.

The emotional reaction from Leniu has prompted claims that the Maroons deliberately kicked away from Leniu to avoid going head-to-head with the Blues firebrand.

“You’ve got the big, tough forward pack of the current QLD side with the ability to have one bloke running straight into 13 on his own, and they kicked away from him?” Former NSW captain Paul Gallen said on 2GB’s The Continuous Team.

“They kicked away from him because they didn’t want to tackle him.

“Former NSW backrower Wade Graham doubled-down on Triple M, declaring: “It might be one of the weakest plays in Origin history.”

Leniu stirred up the Queensland crowd. Picture: Adam Head

Josh Hannay, the assistant coach to Queensland coach Billy Slater said on SEN radio on Thursday that the Maroons weren’t running scared, rather that their kick-off was tactical.

“I know there’s been a lot of noise and talk around kicking off to him and the fact that we didn’t,” Hannay said.

“It really wasn’t spoken about. It’s commonplace in the NRL at the moment, to take the smartest kick-off.

“At Cronulla, we set Addin Fonua-Blake back there and sometimes Cam McInnes and no one is kicking to Addin Fonua-Blake, they kick to Cam McInnes.

“It’s a smart option. It’s nothing about being weak. No one on a football field is being weak.

“But if that topic comes up at some point, we might make a decision around being really specific with our kick-offs, but the reality is, guys just take their smartest kick-offs these days.”