{"id":400186,"date":"2024-06-05T13:14:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T13:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=400186"},"modified":"2024-06-05T14:06:06","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T14:06:06","slug":"walsh-fill-in-grabs-hat-trick-as-maroons-have-last-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=400186","title":{"rendered":"Walsh fill-in grabs hat-trick as Maroons have last laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland<\/a> speedster Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow was catapulted into the fullback role and brained the task after a brutal hit wiped out Reece Walsh early<\/a> in the State of Origin<\/a> opener.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The Cowboys excitement machine completed a hat-trick of tries\ufeff with less than two minutes left on the clock on Wednesday night, adding to the Blues<\/a>' misery as the hosts were defeated 38-10 at Accor Stadium.<\/p>\n

Tabuai-Fidow told Nine he'd prepared to switch to fullback if a backline shake-up was required and Maroons coach Billy Slater's best-laid plans came to fruition.<\/p>\n

RECAP:<\/strong> Blues thumped in Origin I nightmare<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Stunned reaction follows Suaalii send-off<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Maroons great in hot water over Suaalii spray<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"I did a couple of reps in there at fullback during the week," \ufeffTabuai-Fidow told Allana Ferguson.<\/p>\n

"In Origin anything can happen. Lucky we trained for it and I was ready for it, too."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 State of Origin series exclusively live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Slater thrust him \ufeffinto the fullback role after Walsh's night ended when Joseph Suaalii smashed him with a high tackle.<\/p>\n

Suaalii was sent off, leaving the Blues with one less man on the field than the Maroons for the vast majority of the game.<\/p>\n

\"Hamiso<\/p>\n

Tabuai-Fidow scored his first two tries in the space of five minutes midway through the opening half, twice looming up on Murray Taulagi's inside as Queensland cut up NSW on the left edge.<\/p>\n

The man known as "The Hammer" chalked up his third try when he popped up on Tom Dearden's inside and scooted away to score in the \ufeff79th minute.<\/p>\n

The Maroons' plan to target the Blues' right edge after the departure of Suaalii was clear to see.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Hammer<\/p>\n

The Blues scored\ufeff a try in the 14th minute when former NSW captain James Tedesco pounced on a Jarome Luai grubber, before grabbing another try when Zac Lomax climbed above Selwyn Cobbo to pluck a Nicho Hynes kick just after the half-time break.<\/p>\n

But the Maroons, who piled on tries through Tabuai-Fidow (three), Ben Hunt (two) and Xavier Coates, dominated the Sydney clash.<\/p>\n

Tedesco, filling in at fullback after a quad injury prevented Dylan Edwards from making his Origin debut<\/a>, admitted playing with a man down was "very tough".\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I thought we tried bloody hard," Tedesco told Paul Gallen on the Nine broadcast.<\/p>\n

"The effort was definitely there for 80 minutes, but it sort of takes its toll when you're down a man for that long\ufeff. I thought we put our gloves up and fought pretty hard, but as I said, it definitely takes its toll by the end of the game."<\/p>\n

NSW will need to win at the MCG on June 26 to force a series decider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland speedster Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow was catapulted into the fullback role and brained the task after a brutal hit wiped out Reece Walsh early in the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":400188,"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\/400186"}],"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=400186"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400190,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400186\/revisions\/400190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/400188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}