{"id":81727,"date":"2021-06-07T07:09:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T07:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=81727"},"modified":"2021-06-07T09:01:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T09:01:37","slug":"origin-stars-awkward-townsville-welcoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=81727","title":{"rendered":"Origin stars' awkward Townsville welcoming"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2021 State of Origin<\/a> series has gotten off to an awkward start in Townsville, with little fanfare surrounding the two teams as they landed ahead of the series opener.<\/p>\n

Despite Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk claiming that the event would be "history in the making"<\/a> after Origin I was moved from the MCG to Townsville, there were almost no fans waiting for the Maroons, while the Blues were able to escape with little to no heckling.<\/p>\n

MATCH INFO: <\/strong>Your full State of Origin guide<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"State<\/p>\n

The Maroons were greeted with a large "GO MAROONS!" banner and a few balloons set up at the arrivals gate, but the missing fanfare made for an awkward setting. <\/p>\n

Media present were left stunned by the lack of fanfare inside the Townsville Airport as the two sides landed ahead of Wednesday night's Game I.<\/p>\n

The awkward setting came as Queensland skipper Daly Cherry-Evans promised this year's series would have the same brutality as years past<\/a>, despite the NRL's crackdown on head-high contact.<\/p>\n

\"Brad<\/p>\n

"As players we all know what Origin is about, what it means to each other, to the fans, Cherry-Evans said.<\/p>\n

"We aren't gladiators, but we're playing a very heavy contact sport.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkGottlieb\/status\/1401787079189618691?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamJackson_9\/status\/1401788174381174787?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/ScottBaileyAAP\/status\/1401782765465391107?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

"If there's foul play any player will agree they're going to have to act on it, but as for those little accidental shots and the ones that brush past it'd be great to see it refereed as a penalty.<\/p>\n

"The product of Origin is amazing; 13 on 13, some of the best players going together, I don't want to have to come off talking about referees.<\/p>\n

"I don't think that's fair to them; they've been under a lot of scrutiny this year, hopefully we can let the footy do the talking as players."<\/p>\n

Origin I will get underway on Wednesday, June 9, with kick off scheduled for 8:10 pm AEST at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.<\/p>\n

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

The 2021 State of Origin series has gotten off to an awkward start in Townsville, with little fanfare surrounding the two teams as they landed […]<\/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\/81727"}],"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=81727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81729,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81727\/revisions\/81729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}