The New South Wales Blues host the Queensland Maroons in Game 2 of the 2012 State of Origin series, with 84,000 Blues fans hoping for a win to keep the series alive. Join us for live scores and commentary from 7:30pm AEST.
View the deciding Game 3 Origin LIVE BLOG here.
Despite dominating play in game one, New South Wales once again failed to beat the Maroons in Melbourne and are now staring down the barrel of a seventh straight series defeat.
The Blues however are back home in Sydney and will fancy their chances of levelling the series playing on what should be a wet and slippery ANZ Stadium surface.
In last season’s Game 2, New South Wales managed to upstage Queensland at home, beating the Maroons 18-8 in wet conditions.
With New South Wale’s forwards dominating their Queensland counterparts in Game 1, expect the Blues to keep things simple up the middle tonight as they aim to control proceedings in the middle of the park.
Forwards Paul Gallen and James Tamou were strong for New South Wales in Game 1 and will need to stand tall again if they are to provide halves Mitchell Pearce and Todd Carney with the room to deploy their long kicking games and attempt to run through the Maroons defence.
Carney and Pearce failed to assert their authority in Melbourne and will be looking to vastly improve their performances tonight by nailing the basics against Queensland. Expect both players to kick early in the tackle count in a bid to pin the Maroons deep in their own half.
With the ball in hand, Carney and Pearce should look to play a lot of inside balls tonight, particularly when mobile forwards such as Anthony Watmough and Glenn Stewart are running back inside.
If Carney and Pearce can play the percentages well, New South Wales will put themselves in a prime position to win the territorial arm wrestle tonight.
Queensland meanwhile will also look to keep things simple early on, but they may struggle to win the forward battle without the inspirational Sam Thaiday.
Despite being named, Thaiday has withdrawn from the Queensland Origin squad due to injury and has been replaced by Broncos team-mate Corey Parker.
Although Parker is a worthy replacement, Thaiday’s passion and work ethic will be missed by Queensland tonight.
With workaholic players such as Nate Myles, Ashley Harrison and Cameron Smith in the side however, Queensland do possess the forwards necessary to fill Thaiday’s void in both defence and attack.
If Queensland does manage to get the better of territory tonight, it is no secret that the devastating quartest of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk and Johnathon Thurston will dominate proceedings tonight.
In the few opportunities they had to shine in game one, the preceding players all managed to wreck havoc with their running and passing games and will do so again, regardless of the conditions.
If New South Wales can execute well and keep things simple with yardage up the middle, and space for the backline to shine for the full eighty minutes, it should be enough to grind the Maroons down in a tight contest. Their intensity must last – else Queensland will make them pay, yet again. The Blues home crowd should help them.
New South Wales by 6
View the deciding Game 3 Origin LIVE BLOG here.