Queensland have beaten the Westpac NSW Blues 32-6 in Game Two at Suncorp Stadium tonight, securing the Ampol State of Origin shield for 2023 with one game in hand.
In a fiery end to the match, three players were forced from the field by referee Ashley Klein with 20 seconds remaining. Blues winger Josh Addo-Carr was sin-binned, while teammate Jarome Luai and Queensland fullback Reece Walsh were both sent off.
The win gives Billy Slater two series wins in his first two years as an Origin coach - his team doing it in style with a six tries-to-one performance. They now have the chance to come to Sydney for Game Three on Wednesday 12 July and complete a 3-0 series.
Pre-game injuries had robbed NSW of their first-choice halfback (Nathan Cleary), hooker (Api Koroisau) and centre (Latrell Mitchell).
But with the match barely two minutes old, centre Tom Trbojevic went down after a right pectoral muscle injury while tackling Walsh. That sent bench hooker Damien Cook into left centre and starting hooker Reece Robson stayed at dummy, meaning both rakes played 80 minutes.
NSW will be ruing the missed chances to score points with better field position in the first half, but the Queensland defence was equally relentless.
Maroons prop Lindsay Collins was named Player of the Match.
“Queensland played well as they did in Game One – they got the job done up here,” Cook – NSW’s sole try scorer – told Channel Nine.
"Yes we got chucked around in positions but we’re footballers so we’ve just got to do our job and we we weren’t able to do that tonight.
“(Attack) wasn’t as smooth as we would have liked but you’ve got to give credit to Queensland. They ‘D’ (defend) well and just force errors. It wasn’t our night.”
NSW coach Brad Fittler did not use Trbojevic’s early exit as an excuse for the loss.
“Their defence was very good. It would have been a bit more interesting if he was there since he’s a strike player, a good player,” Fittler told media in the post-match press conference.
“But I’ve got to hand it to their defence – very rarely did we look like we were going to break them and score tries.”
NSW found themselves down 10-0 at the half-time break.
Valentine Holmes scored in the eighth minute, pouncing on a loose ball from a contested kick by Xavier Coates and Addo-Carr.
Then the grind started over the next 25 minutes but Queensland’s second try came against the run of play.
A 70-metre run by Stephen Crichton, before being brought down by a cover-tackle from Daly Cherry-Evans, had NSW attacking the Maroons’ line.
But a shift upfield by Queensland culminated with a left-edge play for Murray Taulagi to score.
After 40 minutes the Blues had 53 per cent possession with a 91 per cent completion rate, had more run metres, more tackle-busts and led penalties 4-1.
Early in the second half Holmes scored his second after a bust upfield by Walsh.
Then a Taulagi chip kick back inside made a favourable bounce for Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to score Queensland’s fourth try for a 20-0 lead.
The Blues’ first points came in the 57th minute with an angled run by Cook, after some short passing between Luai and Hudson Young.
But a fifth Queensland try, for Xavier Coates, pushed the scoreboard out to 26-6 with 16 minutes left.
NSW’s luckless night was summed up with Queensland’s final try, when Cameron Munster’s kick was spilled as Blues teammates Addo-Carr and Cook collided – leaving Maroons second rower Jeremiah Nanai to pick up the scraps.
