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Origin III was a matter of fingers and fingertips. Not inches. Fingers.
NSW fans will no doubt dissect the game from every possible angle to figure out what went wrong, and they’ll likely come up with a slew of different options.
There’ll be some blaming of the ref, some blaming of Queensland, and some blaming of the 23 tackles that the Blues missed collectively. Might as well blame the streaker too.
But the reality is that the Blues dropped their chance at ending Queensland’s Origin dominance.
They simply couldn’t hold on to the ball.
The plague was so widespread that it isn’t a fair assessment to blame just one player for knocking-on. Mitchell Pearce did it with his opening touch of the football; Josh Dugan did it with the try-line at his mercy, as did Jennings. James McManus did it to set up the Maroon’s second try.
New South Wales simply couldn’t hold the ball when they needed to most. And in doing so, they continued to let Queensland off the hook time and time again.
In the end, that proved to be the biggest difference on the night.
It wasn’t refereeing decisions or “cheating Queenslanders” that cost the Blues; it was their ineffectiveness in attack and the fact that they continued to let off the pressure valve at the most critical moments.
For every penalty that NSW might have won in the penalty count, they gave up in the error column. They made more hit-ups and less tackles, but they continued to be bogged down by errors, and in doing so, threw away their chance victory – literally, and figuratively.
It’s now eight long years since NSW have tasted Origin success. For the run to end, they must make big changes and the right changes.
Perhaps the biggest change that needs to be made is that of Mitchell Pearce and the halfback position.
Forget the history; forget his so-called “combination” with James Maloney.
Pearce sputtered under the bright lights of Origin once more, and seemingly condemned himself to further scrutiny from NSW and QLD fans alike.
His spot in the 2014 Origin team is tentative at best – especially after another poor showing – and he needs to prove himself as a world-class player once again.
The “best halfback in NSW” kicked six times, he took the line on three times, broke one tackle, and knocked the ball on in the opening set.
That was it.
Compare that to the performance of former Blues halfback Todd Carney, who just last week broke five tackles, had two line-breaks, one line-break assist and three try-assists as the Sharks beat Brisbane 19-18 away from home.
Oh yeah – throw in three-from-three in the kicking department and a field goal.
Had it not been for injury, Carney could very well have held the No. 7 jersey for the entire Origin series this year, and it’s perhaps a decision that NSW wish they’d made.
Not because he would have necessarily set the world on fire and had a Brisbane-like performance every week, but because he would have had a go.
He would have kicked better, run better, and commanded the ball more. He would have given the Blues direction in attack. And as a result of that, he would have eliminated the errors that haunted NSW’s attack, and cost them another series.
Errors come about because of panic and a lack of direction.
Errors come about when players try to pull off too much.
And while dropping Pearce wouldn’t necessarily give NSW an error-free series and end Queensland’s incredible reign, it would be a step in the right direction. Which, after hearing “singin’ aye, yi, yippie, yippie, yi” for the eighth straight time, is surely a step that the Blues have to make in 2014.
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