NSW halfback and captain Kasey Reh starred as the Westpac NSW Under 19s put on a record 46-4 win over Queensland in the annual State of Origin match played at Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval tonight.
The junior Sky Blues wanted vindication after last year’s 20-14 loss to the Maroons at Redcliffe and they did it in emphatic fashion with a nine tries to one victory this year.
Reh was in everything having a hand in four tries and scoring another herself.
Her superlative kicking game kept the Queenslanders pinned in their own half for large periods of the game.
So it was little surprise Reh was awarded Player of the Match.
The Under 19s Women’s Origin began in 2021, after shifting from Under 18s, with the 42-point win setting a new record. The previous was NSW’s 16-point win in 2022 (22-6).
The win was underpinned with the NSW taking a 20-4 lead into halftime. By full-time the home side had made 10 linebreaks to four. And 43 tackle busts to 13.
Reh showed the way early scoring NSW’s first try.
A simple dummy to her centre Indie Bostock had her slip through two defenders in the southwest corner.
Off the back of 60 per cent possession through a high completion rate, the Blues kept their foot on the Maroons’ throats.
They ran in three more first-half tries before the break, although Queensland winger Ebony Raftstrand-Smith pulled one back in the 15th minute.
Reh’s kicking game was relentless. NSW’s second try came from a strong kick-chase after the No.7 sent the ball south once more and Queensland was trapped in their in-goal.
A short kick-off resulted in NSW centre Lindsay Tui, who was on the losing side last year in the Under 19s, simply leaving two Maroons defenders grabbing at thin air as she darted over in the 18th minute.
Six minutes later a Reh grubber resulted in a six-again call from referee Karra-Lee Nolan. On the second play hooker Chelsea Savill stretched her right arm to score from dummy-half. She then converted her own try to push the scoreboard out to 14-4.
A 30-metre run upfield by NSW winger Tia-Jordyn Vasilovski gave second-rower Evah McEwen the impetus to run 20 metres herself, stepping off her left foot twice to score. Charlotte Basham converted and NSW headed to the sheds with a 16-point lead.
Only three minutes into the second half that stretched out to 22 points, when another Reh grubber brought a favourable bounce for bench forward Bronte Wilson.
A chance for Queensland to get back into the game went begging when the Bunker denied a try to utility Shauna Barnham for losing the ball over the line.
NSW then scored two tries in two minutes to add a little more salt to the Maroons’ wound, propelling the scoreboard to 34-4.
First a Reh cut-out pass found winger Maria Paseka in the clear. Then a break from dummy-half by NSW No.14 Evie Jones led to five-eighth Evie McGrath looming in support to score the Blues’ seventh try.
The eighth came to lock Ryvrr-Lee Alo near the posts, three plays after Vasilovski made a 40-metre run upfield.
Then the ninth different player for NSW to cross the white chalk came two minutes later when Bostock had the Queenslanders stripped for numbers again.
