When just is enough to survive: Maroons hold on in cliffhanger State of Origin

Cameron Munster couldn’t have played more of a captain’s knock in a Test cricket cap as Queensland won a State of Origin cliffhanger 26-24 in Perth.

Maroons' Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (C) celebrates a try with teammates during game two of the men's State of Origin. Picture: COLIN MURTY / AFP

Billy Slater started his day with a heartfelt apology. He finished it in triumph as Queensland captain Cameron Munster breathed life into the State of Origin series by orchestrating a nerve-shredding victory in Perth that proved the besieged coach’s controversial call to sack Daly Cherry-Evans was a bold, vibrant masterstroke.

Ditching the Maroons’ ex-skipper after game one felt akin to tossing the captain of the Titanic overboard at the first sign of a leaky boat. There went the neighbourhood and Queensland’s ­fabled tradition of loyalty, it seemed, until Munster and Tom Dearden combined like thunder and lightning in the halves for a cliffhanger 26-24 victory in torrential rain at Optus Stadium. that levelled the series.

“It was everything you could imagine. We ended up getting the chocolates,” man-of-the-match Munster said. “A never-say-die attitude. To be able to captain this time, and all the criticism Billy has been getting, we needed to turn up for our coach tonight and we f..king did.”

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow of the Maroons celebrates with team mates after scoring his second try. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

It was the biggest of big Wednesdays for Slater and Munster. In defeat the buck would have swerved, skidded in the wet and stopped at the feet of a coach who’d seemingly forgotten how to win – and who started Origin day having to apologise to the late Paul Green’s family for an ill-­chosen comment the day before.

Slater’s reputation and Origin career were on the line in Perth. His first two years in charge had ended with the Maroons singing their favourite tune of aye-aye-yippee-yippee-aye but things had taken a turn for the disastrous. He desperately needed his five-eighth and mercurial new leader, Munster, and Dearden, the replacement for Cherry-Evans in the No. 7 jersey, to have blinders. They did, allowing the Maroons to rise from the dead.

Munster couldn’t have played more of a captain’s knock in a Test cricket cap. When he roared through a gaping hole to give his Maroons an 18-6 lead in the 31st minute, in a game they were expected to lose, in a town where they had never succeeded, he slam-dunked the ball like an NFL player upon scoring a touchdown.

The leadership agreed with Munster, a notoriously hot-and-cold performer, who took it upon himself to be the busiest, most dangerous and most incessantly vocal of Maroons players. Slater raised a fist to the sky … and breathed a sigh of relief.

He deserved an abundance of praise, glory and a full flute of champagne for orchestrating a change of fortunes few thought possible. Predictions of a shellacking and his imminent sacking as coach became gibberish. The Maroons scored four first-half tries despite the ball resembling a cake of soap in the paralysing, persistent precipitation.

Stephen Crichton of the Blues (centre) celebrates with teammates after scoring a try. Picture: AAP /Dan Himbrechts

Leading 26-6 at halftime, the Maroons conceded a try immediately after the break to Blues’ winger Brian To’o, who had opened the scoring in the first-half. Then another to Stephen Crichton. Then another to To’o, and then another to Angus Crichton, and the biggest ever Origin comeback was on the cards. They scored five tries to four and threw the ­kitchen, utensils and all the cutlery into the final minutes … but only two of five shots at goal ended up costly. Aye-aye-yippee-yippee-aye, there was the rub.

Munster was a man possessed from the moment he emerged from the tunnel staring daggers. He held proceedings in the palms of his soft, skilful hands for most of the night. He was too fast, and too ferocious, and too Origin-minded. Too tough, too passionate, and too bloody good, falling over the finish line in exhaustion and delirium. The Maroons only just won. Just is always enough.

Game three will be at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on July 9.