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New South Wales played rubbish rugby league at Suncorp last night, gift-wrapping a 26-6 win to Queensland to level the series with the decider in Sydney on July 17.
There was no zig, no zag, and no zip in the NSW lineup, apart from the 54th minute all-in brawl when Trent Merrin and Greg Bird copped 10 in the bin, along with Queenslanders Brent Tate and Justin Hodges, and Brett Morris’ 70th minute try.
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The rest was zilch; zero.
The 51,690 predominantly Maroon crowd loved New South Wales looking so ordinary as Johnathon Thurston and Cooper Cronk toyed with the men-in-blue.
Thurston spent Tuesday night in hospital with a viral infection, then infected the Blues with his brilliance last night. He’s a wizard when he’s in that commanding mood.
And Cronk wasn’t far behind.
But as a spectacle, Origin 2 fell way short of what was expected.
Very rarely can I sit at the keyboard and type that the Wallaby Test was a far better spectacle than an Origin game.
The Wallaby-Lions Test was a cracker; last night was a fizzer.
New South Wales dragged the mighty Maroons down to their level. Any one of the previous seven Origin series winners would have hammered the Blues of last night by 40-50 points – the 20-point difference flattered them.
Coach Laurie Daley look like a rabbit in the headlights as he watched his troops surrender with hardly a whimper.
They hadn’t scored a try in three halves of football until Morris went over since leading 14-0 at half time in Origin 1.
Many changes must be made for the decider with Adam Reynolds and Todd Carney at the top of the list. They would have sparked their lethargic team mates to at least make a contest of it.
Queensland dominated the stats – possession 53%, sets 40 to 32, completed sets 31 to 24, and missed tackles 22 to 33 – while New South Wales made the most tackles, with 362 to 291.
So it was a big night for Queenslanders: the Maroons won 26-6, and Kevin Rudd won 57-45 over Julia Gillard in the Labor Party leadership spill.
In fact, there was more action in Canberra than at Suncorp.
Let’s hope for far more intensive rugby league in Sydney’s Origin 3 on July 17.