Origin Game 2 Wrap Up - The NSW Perspective - By Hayley

The night started with many angry fans after Channel 9's decision to run with the leadership spill & I'm sure it ended with many angry fans after 4 players being sin binned for a bit of biff. I'm not sure why the "Home of Rugby League" decided to run with the leadership spill past 7:30 when they were actually talking about nothing. They could have let that continue on Gem & started the Origin coverage at the scheduled time of 7:30. Once the viewer’s finally got what they wanted, we were hammered with ads. All was forgotten though as soon as that whistle blew.

As expected QLD came out firing, they ambushed NSW and I don't think NSW were expecting it to be as intense as it was. QLD won the game in the first 10mins. They did what NSW did in Game 1, 3 weeks ago. Pearce and Maloney found it hard to get into the game in the first half. Whenever NSW managed to get some good field position they just couldn't finish off their set with a good kick. Robbie Farah took it upon himself to take control of the game, taking over a lot of the kicking towards the end of the first half.

After the initial ambush NSW managed to take stock and managed to keep QLD out for the last 20 minutes of the first half. The 10m seemed very short in the first half and QLD were very quick off their line, sometimes too quick in my opinion. There was one scrum where the spidercam was showing the bird’s eye view and Billy Slater broke from the scrum before the ball had even been fed.

Reynolds made his Origin debut with about 10 minutes left in the first half and never looked like settling down. He looked nervous the whole time he was out there.

The second half wasn't too great for the Blues with players falling off tackles, passes not hitting the mark and players getting the ball from a standstill. It’s no surprise that NSW started getting penalties going their way once the crowd quietened in the second half.

Daley has taken the wrap for Merritt constantly coming off his wing to jam in on Inglis. Whether he's doing it to take the heat off Merritt or whether it's actually true we'll probably never know. Whatever the case, QLD looked to expose Merritt and it worked. It will be interesting to see whether Daley will go with Merritt in Game 3. With Hayne more than likely going to be fit, Daley has the option to move Dugan out to the wing. You can safely assume Ferguson won’t be selected with his court date only the day before Game 3.

NSW’s stand out players would have to be Farah and Fifita. Lewis wasn’t able to reproduce his Man of the Match performance from Game 1 although he did have moments of brilliance. NSW definitely missed Hayne and Ferguson.

I can’t finish without mentioning the biff. Like most people I thought it was ridiculous that 4 players were sin binned. A lot of people are asking why Tate was sin binned when he didn’t do anything. I did see Tate throw a punch. It was a pathetic attempt at a punch and landed on Merrin’s chest but it was still a punch. I don’t think it was send-off worthy but in the new eyes of the law it needed to be a send-off. I didn’t see Bird throw any punches and he seemed pretty adamant that he didn’t. I believe the only reason he was sent off was to even up the numbers as there would have been an outcry if more players got sin binned from one team than another.

QLD definitely outplayed NSW and as much as it pains me to say, they deserved to win. NSW will need to play a lot better in the 3^rd game if they have any chance of winning. The only thing that saved NSW in Game 1 was their defence. They need to work on ball control because QLD will come out firing again in Game 3 and NSW will never get into the game with as many errors as we have seen from Games 1 and 2.

We now go to a decider for Game 3 and I'm super excited, I feel this is the year NSW will end QLD's reign. I'll be sitting front row of Blatchy's Blues so keep an eye out for me. I'll be the one in the blue wig. Hope to see you all there!

Love,

@LadiesWhoLeague