New South Wales have won their first official State of Origin title after defeating Queensland 52-4 at Quaycentre on Saturday afternoon.
Following a 54-18 victory in the Interstate Challenge last year, NSW have recorded their second dominant win over QLD in front of an impressive crowd.
The 80-minute match was filled with skilful, hard hitting and high intensity plays as the NSW side scored a total of ten tries whilst only conceding one in the first half. Corey Cannane assisted his side to victory after scoring four tries within the first half.
NSW Man of the Match, Brett Henman, opened up the scoring for NSW in the fourth minute of the match. Henman was ecstatic with the result after all the hard work which had gone in to training leading up to the game.
“(I’m)absolutely stoked. We had a plan, all the boys stuck to it, they did their job, our defence was awesome and it was fantastic,” Henman told NSWRL following the match.
Cory Cannane was next to break through the defensive line to score their second of the match, with the conversion attempt waved away.
NSW continued to display a terrific defensive display as QLD struggled to break through. They capiatlise on the impressive defence with Cory going over for his second of the game to extend their lead out to 16- nil.
The Blues continued to favour the right-hand side as Brad Grove was next to barge over and score.
Following 19 minutes, QLD were in for their first of the match through Shaun Harre. The attempted conversion was waved away.
QLD than forced a goal line drop out, after a deft kick sat up in goal before NSW took it out of the field of play. They continued on the attack, with an early kick on the third tackle saw James Hill race down side of the field beating three NSW players before the ball slowly rolled in to touch.
NSW remained to apply pressure with Cory Cannane scoring back-to back tries. NSW were then awarded back-to-back penalties inside the final minute of the first half, opting to take the two points and successfully kicking a penalty goal. NSW had a dominant lead at half-time, 32- 4.
NSW started the second half strong, but were disallowed a try after a nice passage of play occurred down the left edge. They were next in to score through their Captain, Craig Cannane in the left corner. The conversion attempt was waved away.
Brad Grove impressed with his pace down the left edge, making the break to set up Michael Johnson to score. The conversion was successful to extend NSW’s lead 40-4.
The home side were in again, following a brilliant chase from Jason Attard as went over for his first four-pointer. The kick was successful to extend the lead to 46-4.
NSW’s Liam Luff pushed his way through the defensive line to score and bring up NSW’s 50-point mark. The conversion was successful as NSW secured an impressive 48- point lead, in the final ten minutes of play.
NSW successfully defended their line throughout the second half, as QLD were left scoreless.
