{"id":91618,"date":"2021-06-27T12:37:27","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T12:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=91618"},"modified":"2021-06-27T13:56:38","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T13:56:38","slug":"disjointed-maroons-flop-as-blues-reclaim-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=91618","title":{"rendered":"'Disjointed' Maroons flop as Blues reclaim shield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland were forced into taking a makeshift spine into State of Origin II<\/a> and it haunted them at what's historically a dream venue, the Maroons falling 26-0 as the Blues<\/a> reclaimed the shield in comprehensive fashion.<\/p>\n

After precocious 18-year-old fullback Reece Walsh and gun hooker Harry Grant were unavailable for selection due to injury, the Maroons were forced to use Valentine Holmes, Cameron Munster, Daly Cherry-Evans, Andrew McCullough and Ben Hunt for their spine.<\/p>\n

NSW<\/a> took a 20-0 lead into half-time and Queensland became increasingly desperate throughout the second half, further exposing their horribly out-of-sync playmakers.<\/p>\n

When five-eighth Munster put up a kick for winger Kyle Feldt on the right edge in the 62nd minute, a kick that came to nought, former NSW captain Paul Gallen took aim.<\/p>\n

"The Maroons attack looks a little bit disjointed," Gallen said on Nine's coverage.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"I feel that's their only chance of scoring a try: a big kick over to one of their big, tall wingers."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When Holmes poked a grubber into the Blues' in-goal area in the 65th minute, winger Xavier Coates tearing through in pursuit, legendary Maroons fullback Billy Slater lamented Queensland's attack.<\/p>\n

"That wasn't the play," Slater said.<\/p>\n

"No one knows what's going on. Coates waiting for the pass, Holmes decides to kick it. They're all on different pages at the moment."<\/p>\n

Munster indicated as he walked off for the half-time break that the Maroons were well aware of their clunkiness in attack.<\/p>\n

"Just got to run hard at them and make sure our options and our timing are right," Munster said.<\/p>\n

"We're not very in sync at the moment. A lot of players are doing different things and we're calling out plays and unfortunately it's not getting there.<\/p>\n

"So we need to have a chat at half-time and make sure we get to our spots, because they're obviously getting over us.<\/p>\n

"We had some opportunities there but we didn't ice them, so we need to make sure we do that this half."<\/p>\n

The flood of comments wailing over Queensland's lack of chemistry in attack stood in stark contrast to the analysis of NSW.<\/p>\n

"You've got Nathan Cleary steering the ship, you've got Jarome Luai and the link man, Isaah Yeo – he's in there, as well," Slater said.<\/p>\n

"When you've got players from the same team that understand each other's games in key positions, it makes it a lot easier."<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

As the Maroons' attack flopped the Blues' long list of lethal weapons repeatedly linked in unstoppable passages of play.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the Blues' slickest try of the four they scored came in the 33rd minute, when superstar centre Tom Trbojevic crossed in a long-range stunner.<\/p>\n

Cleary linked with second-rower Cameron Murray on the right edge, the Rabbitohs workhouse spread it to Trbojevic and, after the Sea Eagles weapon sent Josh Addo-Carr flying into open pastures, he retrieved the footy back and zipped away to score.<\/p>\n

NSW captain Tedesco was recognised as the most potent of the Blues' destroyers, collecting man-of-the-match honours.<\/p>\n

The Dally M medallist racked up two try assists, 28 runs, 234 metres and 10 tackle busts in a phenomenal performance.<\/p>\n

\"Brilliant<\/p>\n

But it was also NSW's defence that played its part in frustrating Queensland into error, as the Blues held the Maroons to zero points in Queensland for the first time in history.<\/p>\n

It marked just the third time ever that Queensland had been held to nil and the first time since Game Two of the 1994 series, in which NSW won 14-0 at the MCG.<\/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> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland were forced into taking a makeshift spine into State of Origin II and it haunted them at what's historically a dream venue, the Maroons […]<\/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\/91618"}],"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=91618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91620,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91618\/revisions\/91620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}