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Ah, Queensland. At the moment they’re just a lot better at rugby league. There is an edge about Queensland that makes NSW players look average. Kurt Gidley runs the ball back from fullback, Jonathan Thurston says “Gimme that!”as he strips the ball one on one and its 28-14. Game over.
Earlier, as the Blues were looking to mount a comeback, Jarryd Hayne scoops a clever chip kick, and before I can jump out of my seat, he has fired the ball over the sideline.
A Maroon jersey makes a player play like Superman; a Blue one is like kryptonite.
The fact is that the Maroons are that good that if the Blues are not on absolute fire for the full 80 minutes, then the result is only going one way.
Things started well enough for NSW: they muscled up and were starting to force errors, it was only right that they would take the lead through Jarryd Hayne.
But eventually Thurston and Lockyer, who go as well together as Rum and Coke, just started sniping away and the big men of the Queensland backline did their thing.
On the verge of winning a fifth straight series, Queensland head home and will be close to welcoming back the likes of Cameron Smith and Ben Hannant, plus 50,000 Queenslanders, who’ve had a skin full at the Caxton before the game.
Yippee.
The question for the Blues selectors, and it seems to be the perpetual question, is: Where to now?
For what it’s worth, I’d put Hayne at fullback, pull Lyon from five-eighth (maybe for Gidley, maybe Barrett), and ditch Ben Creagh for Paul Gallen.
The other wing? I don’t know can we forge a birth certificate for Aku Uate. Bloodly hell, Suva is as close to NSW as Bowraville is to Queensland.
But importantly, NSW just need the same belief as Queensland have always had. When the Blues were scoring tries at the back end of the game, you knew they would come up short.
If the roles were reversed, you would know that somehow Queensland would come up with some amazing play to steal victory on the death.
It’s just the way it goes at the moment.
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