"Wish I was at home watching it on tv!!" |
"Our view" |
Queensland coach Mal Meninga described it as
eighty minutes of rugby league perfection
For centre Greg Inglis it was eighty minutes of redemption as
the Maroons sent this year's Origin series to a decider with a
30-0 annihilation of New South Wales at Suncorp Stadium
Embarrassed in Game I, Inglis turned it on with a performance
which will go down in Origin folklore, his brutal left hand fend
shutting the Blues out of the contest and keeping alive Queensland's
bid for a hattrick of series wins
Written off before the match, the Maroons turned up with a purpose
not seen in game one, while the Blues were never in the contest
It left them in need of a stunning revival in game three at ANZ
Stadium on July 2 after they became just the second New South
Wales side after the 1995 outfit to be shut-out in an Origin contest
The winning margin equalled the Maroons best ever, while five-eighth
Johnathan Thurston burst out of a slump and equalled Meninga's
Queensland record of seven goals from as many attempts
But the night was about Inglis and his lucky beneficiary Darius
Boys, who scored two tries on debut as his inside man embarrassed
New South Wales centre Mark Gasnier in a table turning effort
from game one
We struggled as a team to get the ball to him in Game I
skipper Cameron Smith said
But I thought our forwards got away to a good start and
Greg saw more open spaces and showed what he could do
Asked about the turnaround from Game I, Meninga said it was all
in the head
Attitude, mentally we were right to go he said
We had a fantastic week with the team, I was disappointed
with our effort after Origin I, but we responded well to the criticism
and came up with a fantastic performance
It was near the perfect footy game
Inglis waited just seven minutes to make up for his game one shocker,
with Gasnier the victim of a fend which left him lying hapless
on the turf
But it had nothing on the facial Inglis delivered Blues debutant
Steve Turner before passing for Boyd's memorable moment
Boyd must have been thinking all his Christmas had come at once
with Inglis again doing all the work for the Broncos youngster's
double inside twenty minutes
It was good, Gaz got one on me and I got one on him and
we take it down to Game III now Man of the Match Inglis
said
It's quite difficult winning down there, we've only won
one game down there the past few years, hopefully we can keep
our performance up and take it on to the next one
Watching Inglis at close range in the NRL every week, Blues coach
Craig Bellamy said he knew it was coming
It was probably the best game of the year from him, but
he didn't need to do it here Bellamy said
He's never far from one of those performances every time
he takes the field. That showed the talent he's got
Boyd almost had three inside half an hour thanks to Inglis only
for a Brett Stewart cover tackle to bring the movement to an end,
a penalty goal to Thurston and another two either side of the
break make it a comfortable 18-0 lead
New South Wales had nothing in reply, the Peter Wallace-Greg Bird
halves combination ineffective behind a badly beaten pack
Bellamy's claim that the Maroons were wasting their breath 'whinging'
about referee Tony Archer's Game I performance came back to haunt
him, Queensland receiving a penalty on just the third tackle of
the game
After blowing just six penalties in the series opener, Archer
whistled sixteen in Brisbane, including nine for the Maroons who
loved the up-tempo style
Asked if it was a case of the squeaky wheel getting the oil, Bellamy
said: They got a lot of oil. There were different interpretations,
but Queensland were too good on the night
It turned into party mode over the final twenty minutes with Ben
Hannant and then Israel Folau crossing for tries as Thurston made
it a perfect seven from seven with the boot