A James Tedesco-inspired performance has seen the Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues go out to a 1-0 lead in the State of Origin series in front of 87,122 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Match: Blues v Maroons
Game 1 -
home Team
Blues
away Team
Maroons
Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
Along with Tedesco, Damien Cook had a blinder on his Origin debut, constantly taking advantage of the markers with his blinding speed which led to multiple line-breaks for his team.
After a dead-even start, NSW began to gain momentum with two repeat sets. From this they were able to post first points when Dylan Napa gave away a penalty in front of the posts and James Maloney took the gift.
A spine-tingling play proceeded, with the NSW No. 9, 6 and 1 combining for what was an outstanding try. Damien Cook took advantage of the markers with his speed before he offloaded the ball to James Maloney who broke away, and once he passed it to James Tedesco on his inside, nobody was stopping the try.
Queensland hit back shortly after against the run of play, when Valentine Holmes snatched a Maloney pass to run 86 metres for an intercept try.
It was a poor start to the second half for NSW, with Maloney throwing a forward pass to Latrell Mitchell while coming out of their end. Queensland capitalised on the opportunity when a grubber kicked behind the defence was pounced on by Dane Gagai and the Maroons took a 12-8 lead.
The lead was short-lived however, as a Queensland error got NSW back on the attack, and a left-side raid was finished by the pure strength of Mitchell, who broke through three defenders to slam the ball down and lock the scores up at 12-all.
Maloney well and truly made up for his previous error, putting up a pinpoint cross-field kick to the wing of Tom Trbojevic, who leaped above the pack, stole the ball out of Holmes’ grasp and took the lead for NSW.
Tedesco was having an absolute blinder, and he added to his wonderful night when he picked the ball up out of dummy half, broke multiple tackles, and eventually offloaded left for the ball to eventually find its way into the ever-reliable hands of Josh Addo-Carr, who finished with perfection.
Mitchell and Addo-Carr both came close to securing a double in the dying minutes of the game, but it wasn't to be as NSW ran out 22-12 winners.
