{"id":100080,"date":"2021-07-14T12:19:49","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T12:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=100080"},"modified":"2021-07-14T14:58:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T14:58:04","slug":"returning-maroons-duo-deny-blues-whitewash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=100080","title":{"rendered":"Returning Maroons duo deny Blues whitewash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland stars Ben Hunt<\/a> and Kalyn Ponga have returned to the Maroons starting side and denied the Blues their first series whitewash since 2000, powering the underdogs to a gripping 20-18 victory on the Gold Coast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ponga shrugged off a groin injury to return to fullback for his first match of the series and Hunt shifted from the bench to start at hooker, in two moves from under-fire Queensland coach Paul Green that transformed the Maroons.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> State of Origin III player ratings: Who fired and who flopped from Blues and Maroons<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> Tom Trbojevic takes out 2021 Wally Lewis Medal as State of Origin player of the series<\/a><\/p>\n

Ponga and Hunt combined in the 64th minute to score a thrilling try that ultimately proved the match-winner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ponga made a stellar line-break from 70 metres out, tore down the right wing as he burnt NSW five-eighth Jack Wighton and linked with winger Xavier Coates on his inside.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> 'Let the players decide': Six-again calls cruel tense opening to Origin Game Three<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> Legends divided over Blues' 'surprising' decision to kick for two points as Maroons survive<\/a><\/p>\n

And while Blues fullback James Tedesco performed a phenomenal tackle on Coates amid a frantic chain of passes, Hunt ensured the Maroons' brilliant passage of footy resulted in a try in the following play.<\/p>\n

The Dragons skipper received the ball from Queensland back-rower Kurt Capewell on the left edge and sliced through a gaping hole in the NSW defence, before a successful Daly Cherry-Evans conversion pushed the Maroons out to a 20-12 lead.<\/p>\n

\"Hunt<\/p>\n

Ponga then arose for another critical play when gun NSW centre Tom Trbojevic burst through the Queensland line in the 73rd minute, the Maroons clinging to a 20-18 lead.<\/p>\n

Ponga opted against tackling Trbojevic, which would have left Tedesco unmarked on his right, and instead showed exquisite timing to bat down Trbojevic's attempted pass to Tedesco.<\/p>\n

Hunt finished the match with 41 tackles and two tries, while Ponga tallied 182 metres and a line-break, as the two returning Maroons filled Queensland fans with hope to finish a losing series.<\/p>\n

An emphatic Hunt said Ponga was his man of the match in a post-game interview on Nine.<\/p>\n

"He's an exceptional talent," Hunt said.<\/p>\n

"He started our sets really well and on the back of our attack he made it really crisp and he just added a lot around the middle there and really directed our forwards around. He was really good."<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Hunt's shot in the No.9 jumper largely came as a result of injury, after Storm weapon Harry Grant was ruled out from the last two games of the series due to a hamstring strain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

St George Illawarra teammate Andrew McCullough beat Hunt to the No.9 jumper for Origin II, before Hunt took over for the final game of the series.<\/p>\n

"He showed what he can do at No.9 and I dare say he will be putting his hand up for that role next year," said Queensland selector Billy Slater.<\/p>\n

Former champion Maroons hooker Cameron Smith agreed that Hunt had shaken up the battle for next year's Queensland No.9 jumper.<\/p>\n

"He's played a lot of representative football in the nine position. Played some time there from the interchange bench," Smith said.<\/p>\n

"You couldn't pick him there for Game One. Harry Grant was fit and he's probably Queensland's No.1 dummy-half, first-choice dummy-half.<\/p>\n

"But … there's got to be some question marks next year over where it goes with the No.9."<\/p>\n

\"Kalyn<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland stars Ben Hunt and Kalyn Ponga have returned to the Maroons starting side and denied the Blues their first series whitewash since 2000, powering […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100082,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100080\/revisions\/100082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}