NRL Thoughts: State of Origin I

Watch out Queensland, Blues on their way!

It was another titanic clash, but this time, for once, despite so many 50-50 calls coming up Queensland's way, New South Wales have managed to take themselves into the lion's den of Suncorp Stadium and come away with a superb victory!

It was a magnificent second half effort in defence that proved the decisive factor, although NSW will surely regret some missed opportunities when they were on top to extend the lead. Dragon superstar winger Brett Morris was superb in defence in the 2nd half despite hurting his shoulder when scoring in the first half! His effort to prevent Darius Boyd from tying the game up could be long remembered - if NSW win the series.

There was no question that the key for NSW was Jarryd Hayne, a constant menace in attack, very heavily involved, while also defusing numerous Queensland raids with aplomb. How good is this man?!

Queensland played well, although they probably lost some of their fluency in attack due to Cronk's injury. Cherry-Evans looked far from overawed though and will only be better for the run. I can't imagine too many NSW fans thinking anything other than this is going to be a tough task to get that second win and clinch the series

I was thinking in the first 20 minutes that maybe the intensity of this game wasn't that far above that of an ordinary game, but it just got tougher and tougher as the game went on. Josh Reynolds, who performed capably in his first game as a starting five-eighth, seemed a little awestruck when commenting immediately after the game about just how tough it was, how he'd never played a game like it. Reynolds has played a grand final, he's played big games, but even so this was something else.NSW haven't been good enough to win very often this last 10 years, but very few of those losses have been thrashings. So often they've given us hope.

Origin provides a level of the game that is simply unmatched, as is perhaps reflected in how many players get injured, there was no shortage of walking wounded among those who didn't end up in hospital. I thought the Bulldogs players in the NSW side were superb, with the partial exception of Tony Williams, a player that one is always expecting to destroy an opposition with his obvious pace and power, only to be disappointed by how rarely it actually happens. I do wonder though, what price will the Bulldogs pay for the obvious intensity that their players brought to this contest. In 2011 St George were going swimmingly into Origin, half our team got picked and after the series our season imploded.  And that's hardly a rare event for teams that are heavily involved in Origin.

Well, we're onto Sydney, it's been 11 years since NSW took Game 1 in Brisbane, and we won that year. Could this be a turning point in our long period of inferiority to the Cane Toads? Go the Blues!