Game One of an Origin series is typically preceded by so much drum beating, trumpet blaring and flag waving that it’s extraordinary it so often lives up to the hype. Last night wasn’t one of those occasions. That it was decided by a point – one made, as it so often is, by Queensland – was enough to hold our attention but as a game it never reached any great heights. It felt like a dress rehearsal of an Origin match, one where lines were fluffed, cues were missed and, for NSW at least, a lighting rig they’d installed themselves came loose from its moorings and landed on their head.
Queensland won’t care, of course. They have an away win to get them off the mark and now only need to win in Melbourne (a home game, of sorts, due to the locals’ tendency to side with the lesser of two evils) or, later, in Brisbane, to reclaim the Origin shield after NSW had the audacity to liberate it from their stronghold last year. Mal Meninga spoke of vindication after the game, and, like a genial bear, he flicked a paw at the critics who’d labelled his team too old, but he’s a master of making mountains out of molehills if there’s motivation to be gleaned from it, so take that with a grain of salt.
More likely Meninga, and his Maroons, would have been relieved Queensland got over the line when they were far from their clinical best. Yes, Cameron Smith conducted with his usual aplomb, and the forwards were not overawed by their younger, and supposedly hungrier, opponents, but for almost the entire second half Queensland were camped in NSW’s territory as the Blues kept inviting trouble yet they came away with just one try – and, yes, that decisive field goal by Cooper Cronk who once again took himself to the top of the mountain, spoke to the oracle, and let his body overrule the cacophony of the mind. Or something like that.
Greg Inglis, who came into the game under an injury cloud and with some ordinary form by his lofty standards, can’t have played a worse game in a maroon jersey and if Queensland’s backs were an artery he was a triple cheeseburger. In the second half, for instance, he threw a short pass over the sideline as if it was unexploded ordinance. Had it found its mark – Darius Boyd outside him, the pilot fish flanking the shark – the winger would have surely scored untouched. That Inglis even attempted the pass, when a fitter, more confident version of himself, would have gone for the line himself, showed he wasn’t quite right. Credit must go to Josh Morris, however, who shook off some ordinary NRL form to keep Inglis in his pocket.
Perhaps as a consequence Queensland relied more on their right-side attack than is usual and both their tries were scored down that channel where Michael Jennings and Daniel Tupou looked less secure than Morris. The first of these tries was to the excellent Cronk in the first half, while the telling second was scored by Will Chambers in the 55th minute. Chambers’ try came from the kind of slick, rehearsed passing movement we’ve come to expect from Queensland, and it made most of their other attacks look slightly out of whack, like the critical lag between sound and pictures on a movie you’ve streamed quite legally, your honour. Billy Slater threatened, as he does, and might have had an early try, and Johnathan Thurston had his moments, but it just wasn’t quite there for Queensland. Yet how happy they are this morning. Happier still when they realise they can only get better.
As for NSW, they will be caught up over the next couple of weeks trying to see a glass half full in one that many will agree is half empty. A positive reading of the game is that NSW should have, could have, won it. Sport is littered with the bones of ‘shouldavs’ and ‘couldavs’, but NSW played about 25 minutes of good football against the best league team in an era and yet lost by a point.
Worse, they had their opportunity to win and, after blowing that, to draw level. On the first occasion, with about seven minutes to go, Hodkinson and Mitchell Pearce were, on consecutive tackles, in position for a field goal on the Queensland 20m line but on both occasions they passed it up, swinging the ball to the flanks instead. On the last Michael Jennings grubbered for himself but it went dead, allowing Queensland the opportunity to roll down the field for a field-goal attempt, which Cronk took at the culmination of a perfectly-executed set.
A few minutes later Hodkinson was standing deep for a drop goal attempt just off centre but dummy half Robbie Farah, who suffered a heavy knock and wasn’t at his best, fired a pass to an unsuspecting Josh Dugan. Dugan, at full-back, was among NSW’s best – it was from his bust and perfectly weighted kick that NSW scored its first try, a beauty to Josh Morris – but he did well enough to get a kick away under pressure and it sailed wide.
It was an amateurish blunder among many others, like Hodkinson failing to find touch in the second half just when NSW were looking for relief from incessant Queensland pressure; pressure that was largely brought about by the Blues’ poor ball security and ill-discipline.
There will be plenty of talk, as per usual, about NSW’s selections, like whether Hodkinson deserves to be retained or whether the much talked about Pearce reprieve paid off; and, on that, he didn’t play badly and set up a try to Beau Scott, before fading in the second half as NSW played off the back foot. But the simple matter is that personnel wasn’t so much the problem for NSW last night, more so their lack of composure and smarts when it mattered most.
NSW had a chance and they blew it. Whether that will give them hope or cause them despair remains to be seen.
