{"id":82587,"date":"2021-06-09T03:16:42","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T03:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=82587"},"modified":"2021-06-09T05:04:55","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T05:04:55","slug":"the-queensland-genius-who-terrifies-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=82587","title":{"rendered":"The Queensland genius who 'terrifies' Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns<\/a> says Cameron Munster is the man the Blues need to stop in the opening State of Origin match in Townsville<\/a>, in what he predicts will be a high-scoring contest.<\/p>\n

Munster has been sidelined for a month with a foot injury,<\/a> but after putting grand final celebrations to one side to lead Queensland to victory in 2020<\/a>, he's already proved he has what it takes to perform on the game's biggest stage.<\/p>\n

Speaking on his Wide World of Sports show Immortal Behaviour, Johns identified the Maroons five-eighth as the key to Queensland's chances.<\/p>\n

The opening State of Origin match from Townsville will be live on Nine from 7:00pm tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

"Munster terrifies me," he said.<\/p>\n

"Last year he got the player of the series and he played hungover the whole series.<\/p>\n

"He's an out and out rockstar, the bigger the occasion, the bigger the crowd, the more pressure, the better he goes, he just wants the ball in his hands.<\/p>\n

Munster hasn't played since the Storm thrashed Souths 50-0 in Round Nine, with his recovery proving slower than expected.<\/p>\n

But according to Johns, that won't be a problem when he takes the field in Townsville.<\/p>\n

"People are going to say he's been out for four or five weeks," he explained.<\/p>\n

"I see that as an advantage for Cameron, he goes in physically and mentally fresh.<\/p>\n

"He's the X-factor for Queensland."<\/p>\n

The opening game, which was set down for Melbourne, was shifted to Townsville in the aftermath of Victoria's COVID-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

And that's a move that Johns says will open up the game.<\/p>\n

"It's a fast surface up there, and there's no dew on the surface, it's like a bowling green this ground," he explained.<\/p>\n

"I think to win this game you're going to have to score upwards of 20 to 24 points.<\/p>\n

"I think it's going to be high-scoring, a lot of ball movement, which then suits (James) Tedesco<\/a>."<\/p>\n

The partnership between Tedesco at fullback and Tom Trbojevic<\/a> in the centres is crucial to New South Wales starting the series with a win, according to Johns.<\/p>\n

"For NSW, I think it's Tedesco and Turbo, when they're working together," he said.<\/p>\n

"We saw (that) in Perth when they played together and Turbo was roving around the field.<\/p>\n

"Tedesco, I think he'll have a big game."<\/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<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns says Cameron Munster is the man the Blues need to stop in the opening State of Origin match in Townsville, […]<\/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\/82587"}],"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=82587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82589,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82587\/revisions\/82589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}