Game 1 of State of Origin was a grinding affair with the closest of margins determining the result. But rather than the Maroons pushing to extremes to secure a victory, it was more a case of NSW ineptitude handing the game to Queensland.
Obviously none of the players tried to make these mistakes but they did.
Here are the NSW’s biggest errors throughout the game.
Daniel Tupou’s knock on early first half
From a regulation winger’s hit-up early in the match, Daniel Tupou inexplicably dropped the ball, despite the absence of any semblance of a big shot. This put NSW under pressure for the best part of the next 15 minutes, due to the poor field position and the subsequent mountain of defensive work.
Dominating field position paved the way for Queensland’s first try, via Cooper Cronk.
While the Blues recovered to lead by halftime, the energy that was drained during this period cannot be understated – especially given Queensland’s dominance of the ruck in the second 40.
Josh Morris going to ground too early in pursuit of a try/ Hodkinson’s missed conversion
Even though it was a fantastic try, showing great creativity and awareness from Josh Dugan and Brett Morris respectively, Morris’ decision to go to ground and plant the ball down for a try immediately after breaking the last-ditch tackle was a cardinal sin.
There was no one within 20 metres of Morris at the time he scored, and he would have known this having raced from 40 metres back to secure the ball. Sure he did fantastically well to get the ball down, but he could have run the ball underneath the posts had he shown more awareness and patience.
Ultimately it left Hodkinson with a difficult (yet kickable) conversion attempt. You may argue that this gives evidence for the need of a clutch kicker, such as Pat Richards, but remember the goal Hodkinson kicked to seal the series victory in Game 2, 2014.
This was a kick the Blues 7 probably should have made, but he was not helped by Morris’ early dive.
Trent Hodkinson’s failure to find touch from a penalty
This is the biggest sin in rugby league. School boys wouldn’t make this error.
After a mountain of defensive work, the Blues received a penalty after Morris was taken out mid-air disposing a cross-field bomb. While our screens were replaying the incident 20 times over, Hodkinson almost completely missed the ball when attempting to kick for touch and instead found Darius Boyd’s midsection.
This destroyed any potential for a dominance reversal (considering Queensland control for 35 of the 40 second-half minutes) and was the single biggest error of the entire match.
We can also link this to the complete destruction of Hodkinson’s confidence during the match, because from this point he was unsighted.
Pearce taking control of the kicking in the second half/ the disappearance of Hokdinson
First and foremost let me acknowledge that Pearce had probably his best 40 minutes of Origin football in the first half. It was as if he was instructed to play expansive, running football that relied on playing what was in front of him. This included, fortunately, an almost complete lack of him kicking the football in the first half.
Now anyone who watches a great deal of rugby league (closely) will know three things: Firstly, Pearce is a mediocre kicker at NRL level. Secondly, Pearce is a dreadful kicker at representative level. Thirdly, Hodkinson is a better kicker at both levels.
Now whether this was at the insistence of Pearce, or Hodkinson lost complete confidence and decided to offload the duties – given he supplied less then half of the kicks in the second half when compared to the first half – isn’t clear. But Pearce’s kicking was utterly dreadful, finding Slater and Co.’s chest 99 per cent of the time, thus giving Queensland on average a first play the ball somewhere within the 20 to 30m line every set.
Compare that to Queensland. Their kicking, in particular that of Cronk, consistently had the Blues pinned down inside their own 10. And in the first half, with a large amount of kicking from Hodkinson, NSW began their defence in a similar position.
For almost the entirety of the second half, Queensland’s sets began too far upfield for NSW to effectively defend, thus allowing Queensland to get their forwards involved early, which subsequently led to dominance of the ruck and excellent field position.
This week I wrote about Wests Tigers’ woes and their insistence on 50-metre-plus bombs, which are completely ineffective. Pearce consistently kicking too long meant that there was zero defensive pressure.
Kicking long is not a bad thing provided you find the ground, but when every kick is a midfield bomb it is a serious issue as Jason Taylor is finding out. Is this a Laurie Daly tactic? I don’t know, but it surely wasn’t there in the first half.
I am far from a Pearce advocate, but I am not going to solely heap the blame on his shoulders. Hodkinson is of equal blame in this instance – as halfback he should have taken control of the game. Whether that was a direct result of his failure to find the line, Pearce forcing the issue, or Daley’s instruction is up for debate. But the point remains.
Robbie Farah’s poor pass from dummy half finding Dugan instead of Hokdinson
Of equal error measure to Hodkinson failing to find touch was Robbie Farah failing to find the Trent Hodkinson in field-goal range with the game on the line.
Hodkinson was set 33 metres out, right in front of the sticks; two metres to his right and a metre or two in front was Josh Dugan, acting as cover.
It is truly a shame because both Farah and in particular Dugan played excellent matches, but the ball had to at all measures go to the ‘Iceman’ Trent Hodkinson.
How a seasoned dummy half failed to find Hodkinson’s hands is beyond me, but ultimately it cost the Blues a legitimate chance at squaring the match with approximately two minutes to play.
Dugan, to his credit, nearly pulled off a miraculous escape, but this mix-up was crucial in deciding the Blues’ fortunes.
Laurie Daley needs a serious re-think for Game 2
While Dugan played a fantastic game at fullback, the added spark of Matt Moylan now needs to come under serious consideration. So too does the strong, straight running and sheer enthusiasm and creativity of Blake Austin in the halves, or even Josh Reynolds, who performed terrifically last round.
The Hokdinson and Pearce experiment failed. Not by a great margin, but by a margin nonetheless, and that is why I am happy the decision on the Game 2 squad won’t be heaped upon myself.
The Link
Guest
Good call Albo - the Chambers missed takle was crucial, NSW on top at the time in the yardage game, immediate pressuere release for QLD. Those plays are so critical in Origin. Chambers absolutely owned him, not bad for guy that's played most of his games at centre.
Albo
Guest
Tupou was solid ?? Seriously ? Two dropped balls. Two missed tackles one leading to a 50 break by Chambers off his own line & the other allowed a QLD try. 9 runs for 78 metres !! With room to move on kick returns ! QLD will pepper him every kick next time ! He has to go !
Albo
Guest
His form has been ordinary this season especially his kicking ! Even his goal kicking has gone off this year. He must be carrying some sort of leg injury surely ? He still has very good defence which has been the main contribution to the Blues performance. But he lacks any command as a general on the field for which NSW is desperately needing . There is no one in the Blues team currently who can run that team of good players around the park. No Joey, no Sterlo, no Brandy, no Cronk, no JT, no Cam Smith . I'm starting to think that Jamie Soward might be the only option at 6 , moving Pearce to 7 and bringing Moylan in at fullback for more creativity in attack ( moving Dugan to centre and dropping the ever uninterested Jennings ).
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Both were around 8-10m back from the play the ball, Hodkinson at a 45 degree angle and Dugan at a tighter angle almost directly behind. Standing any deeper they'd have been on the 40. Hodkinson was in the right spot to take the shot too from a pressure perspective with the tackled player and acting half directly between him and the right marker (on review, that was Cam Smith, so even better for QLD than Guerra). I was largely agreeing on Morris, he was in no position to take a look over the shoulder and see if he was in the clear, it *did* make the conversion tough. Richards, or, in fact, many other specialist wingers would be worth considering. Ideally Morris would be fit, but that's looking touch and go.
Carlos
Guest
No way, I bet when Farrah turned he would have been expecting to pass to a deep standing Hodkinson instead he coped a load of Dugan standing about 5 paces to close. Farrah had a great game that particular stuff up was not on him. Hopkinson should have got in the best position and demanded the ball he didn't and stuff up ensued. As for Morris he scored the most entertaining try of the match how that can be turned into an error is a bit weird to me. He was traveling at a million miles an hour grabbing a ball close to the line. He probably could have adjusted re set turned in and reduced the angle for the kicker....but he did the smart thing made damn sure it was a try. I think Topou will be better next game outside of a couple of costly fumbles he was solid. Poppa was too though a winger that could kick goals would be a welcome addition. I'd bring Pat Richards into the team at the expense of Hoppa.
Brett
Guest
True, but the lack of ball for NSW was mostly self-inflicted. Poor kicking game from the NSW spine.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Carlos, that pass was horrible however you slice it -- it was too high, it had too much heat on it, and was to the wrong player. Dugan was absolutely not in the best spot for the kick, he was too close to the play the ball and thus the markers and specifically the right marker (who I'm pretty sure was Guerra, one of the best pressuring players in the game, Myles was the left marker and is much slower). Morris could've made the conversion a lot easier (Hodkinson was kicking from pretty much the sideline), but in fairness he was in no position to know that and turning around for a look is the kind of thing that leads to bombed tries. The wingers (and arguably Jennings) need to be seriously looked at, there was zero power from either winger on kick returns and far too many defensive errors and ball drops.
Harvey Wilson
Roar Rookie
Pearce reminds me of Shane Watson, someone who is picked just because. No reason, just because.
James Preston
Roar Guru
A number of comments on here regarding the speed of the ruck and not controlling it - I completely agree! However haven't listed as it's not so much an error but more so simply Queensland dominating that aspect of the game
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Tupou's fumble resulting in Cronk eventually scoring,plus his hesitancy in defence and bad positioning means he should be a non starter for SOO2. Hodkinson was badly positioned in not being able to receive the ball to attempt a field goal ,which would have levelled the scores,near the death.And not finding touch.Park football stuff. The NSW forwards can generalluy hold their heads high.Only Dugan and Morris likewise in the backs. A game that was lost due to errors and bad reads,the latter should not be a first grader( being the best of the best's) trait. Much as I am not a Beau Scott fan,he did more than his fair share of work
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Duplicate post**********
cedric
Guest
agree Peter P, after half time blues forwards did not aim up like the Qld pack in defence. With Qld forwards making bigger gains on attack and on the odd ocassion huge ground. But the blues lacked direction, it appeared they couldn't handle running into a brick wall, so they turned over the ball. And with all that extra ball Qld had, they only won by one point. Qld is not looking that flash either. I know it's hard to change a team mid series, but seriously who's given the orders or should I say lack of orders. Maybe it's a bit hard with Robbie being captain and hooker, maybe he's too busy. Someone in the blues has to help Robbie and get control of the side.
Johnny C
Guest
Lets simplify this, its only a game of rugby league. If you take 3 to 4 seconds longer to tackle the opposition every tackle you have far more time to set the defensive line and turn defense into offence. Which was how the second half went for the Maroons. They even had enough time to get back on side then move forward their defensive line encroaching the mysterious 10 metres before we could play the ball! Out smarting the officials on another level! With a team that has had Cameron Smith leading them for so long they are very astute in applying that 5 to 10 % more on holding down all the time. It is not cheating if the referees allow it. Dumb old NSW tries it and we get penalised. Cameron Smith and his crew lead his team, the referee and NSW around at his will, the guy is a genius. Just hope Cooper Cronk doesn't turn out like CS as it will be 10 more years of dominance. But I think this may be too late as well. You dont have to resort to Netball PP, just watch the Super Rugby, this is a very entertaining competition if you can fast forward the scrum stoppages that is!
Peter Preston
Guest
I agree with some of James Preston comments but really the elephant in the room was our forwards. In the first half we slightly dominated the toads forwards and as a result we held our own and gave space to our backs. The second half was the exact opposite - right from the whistle the cane toads came out with venomous tackles, played with pack mentality and in every set of six we made only 30 - 40 meters.The toads regularly made big meters in every set of six in the second half - the score really was a joke - and so are the reporters in the telegraph claiming some sort of victory - the true scoreline should have read 24-10 QLD so dominate were they in the second half. we just held on. The forwards are soft - in the second half they hurt no one in defense and were repeatedly pushed backwards by the cane toads when they attacked. Today's origin is only a mere shadow of its former glory compared to the 80's and 90's when rugby league gladiators played - today's powder puffs would be smashed. No team in the past 15 years would come within 30 points of either the QLD or NSW sides of the 80's and 90's they would be blown off the park in attack and pulped in defense. It appears the touchy feely leftie society has caught up with our once great game which has resorted to slaps and hair pulling - referees are inconstant, forwards impotent and backs so over coached they have no flair despite the hype of commentators. If the game keeps spiraling down at the current rate I will start watching a far rougher and entertaining game called netball.
Andrew
Guest
If Farah got the ball to him at the end and he slotted the field goal, I think people may have forgiven that performance. Though as a Dogs fan, he is not even the best halfback at our club.
Andrew
Guest
Klemmer was awesome. He was always bending the line, was fantastic in defense. Why would you suggest replacing him?
Carlos
Guest
I think you got it wrong a little with these errors. It wasn't Farrah's poor pass. Dugan and Hodkinson stuffed this up. Farrah turned and passed it to the player that was in the best spot for the kick. It should have been Hodkinson standing there. Morris I think you're being to hard on. He secured the try should have been converted. Pearce kicked well in the first half. They were pinned down in the second blaming him for that is a bit harsh. Loz shouldn't change anything game 2 except start with Merrin and have Jackson or Lewis on the bench.
Strachan
Guest
-- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Strachan
Guest
James, agree all those errors certainly didn't help but for me the Blues seemed to give the Reds far too much space and allowed them to regularly return 50 to 60+ metres per set from which they could mount huge pressure. The Blues would then respond with around 30m and put in a long kick and no pressure on Slater & Co. The Reds in the second half should have scored a heap more, which is testament to the Blues solid backs against the wall defense. So Daley needs to work on 2 things, shutting the Reds down quickly from the ruck and giving the blues more space and go forward. The first is relatively straight forward as for the second, that's what he's paid the big bucks for -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Carlos
Guest
You're over reacting QLD won by one point even though they had all the ball in the second half. NSW should keep the same team bringing a new half in now wouldn't make any difference.