Origin: Boo who? Triumphant Maroons jeered at home

Queensland was booed on home soil ... but then had a win.

Man of the match Ben Hunt celebrates after scoring a try. Picture: Getty Images

Queensland was booed before the game.

Had to be a first on home soil. Unbelievable and unheard of. The Maroons had become unrecognisable, eating each other alive, turning on their own … but then they had a 20-18 win and rolled into a melee at full-time. It wasn’t much of a stink, to be honest. Paul Gallen must have been rolling his eyes, one of Yvonne Sampson’s handbags at 10 paces. But it was all frenetic and willing enough to get the masses back onside.

Those pre-match boos of the Maroons were stunning. They’re so proud of their State of Origin history that the jersey has the prestige and mystique of an All Blacks jumper in New Zealand. Yet when the ashen-faced captain Daly Cherry-Evans led his side onto Cbus Super Stadium for their warm-up ahead of Origin III, after two humiliating defeats in which they conceded the series without a whimper, he heard the last thing he would have expected. Bronx cheers. Raspberries. The sort of good old-fashioned booing normally reserved for Prime Ministers, England cricketers and Michael Clarke one time at the Gabba.

When NSW ran onto the pitch, the Blues were cheered. In Queensland! Rugby league had gone properly mad.

Long-striding centre Latrell Mitchell gave the Blues the opening try before doing his bunny-rabbit celebration. Shortly before kick-off, he was having a good old yawn in the dressing room, not exactly succumbing to the stress. Maroons great Allan Langer used to be so pent up he’d vomit in the sheds, but Mitchell acts like he’s in more desperate need of a nap.

Another flogging looked on the cards after the Blues had racked up 76-6 in the opening two mismatches but Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow terrorised the spell check and the Blues defence for a try to the latter. Queensland led 8-6 after 18 minutes and the booing stopped. Rock-solid.

Who actually booed, anyway? Heckling from Blues supporters on foreign soil would normally be drowned out by the hosts. Either the Maroons’ faithful had given it to their own players, or more Blues supporters were in the stands. Either was a gloomy development but the Maroons saved face and avoided the dreaded clean-sweep.

Blues halves Mitchell Moses and Jack Wighton, replacing the injured duo of Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai, did little more than prove how good Cleary and Luai had been. The attack was mostly disjointed, which was on their heads.

Cleary’s fingertips were all over games one and two but Moses struggled to get his hands on the ball. Wighton sliced through for a second-half try but while the new halves were full of effort, they weren’t half as good as the originals

Blues superstar Tom Trbojevic had blood pouring down his face – human after all — as maligned Maroons hooker Ben Hunt burrowed over for two tries.

“Absolute chaos,” Hunt said of the second half, when six-again calls seemed to happen every minute and the scoreboard was going back and forth. The Maroons were up by two points, down by two, up by eight, then two. What a double from Hunt.

The most criticised Queensland player of recent times, at club and state level, Hunt was the difference in a Maroons team that had previously appeared shambolic.

Blues back-up hooker Api Koroisau scored a 69th-minute try on debut to set up a grandstand finish. The Blues threw everything at it, to no avail. James Tedesco’s John Travolta shuffles. Trbojevic chiming in like a flaming arrow before getting the player-of-the-series trophy and looking a bit bummed.

It was a good old-fashioned Origin scoreboard. And a good old-fashioned Origin result. A Queensland win. Mitchell had a long-range 79th-minute shot at goal for the draw. It was on line and looked good … but fell short. I think I heard a cheer.

Cherry-Evans said in his pre-match interview, “We’ve got a lot to play for tonight. We’re really hoping to give the Queensland fans something to be proud of … We’ve got nothing to lose.” And yet they did. They had more pride to lose. They had a series clean-sweep to avoid losing. They had the match itself to lose. They had support to try to win back, by the sound of it, and they succeeded in spectacular fashion.