After a valiant but ultimately doomed effort, there were some definite bright sparks for the NSW Blues but also some monumental disappointments, including from a Test regular.
Read on then jump in the comments to tell me where I’m wrong
More from Origin Game 2
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» Five talking points from Origin 2
» NSW need to find their Origin identity
» State of Origin Game 2 player ratings: Queensland
Matt Moylan: 5.5
A really hard game to get a read on. Ran the ball back aggressively early and seemed like he was trying to get involved as a playmaker, but when he did join the line nothing much happened
Josh Mansour: 6
Seems strange to give a six to a guy who had a hattrick scored by his opposite number but none of those tries were really his fault. Did a good job in terms of getting the ball out of his own end, but didn’t really get much of an opportunity in attack
Michael Jennings: 4
Poor game overall but his defence was the most troubling aspect. Only credited (debited?) with one missed tackle but an awful read gifted Boyd the space to get Gagai the ball for his second try. Has tremendous pedigree but position may be under threat (though probably not in a dead rubber)
Dylan Walker: 3
Ran the ball well at times but any useful contribution in attack totally overwhelmed by conceding four penalties, with his second in particular a truly foolish play. Should lose the right centre spot to Jack Bird or Joey Leilua
Blake Ferguson: 4
Simply didn’t do enough getting the ball out of NSW’s end. Kicks tended to go the other way but he wasn’t seen coming infield to find chances to run.
James Maloney: 7
The intercept try was smart positional play and his option kicking was okay. Put in a nice grubber towards the posts to force a repeat set and apply pressure midway through the second half.
Adam Reynolds: 7
Was good before coming off hurt towards the end of the game. His kicking game was solid, but he did give away a silly penalty midway through the second half. Pass for Tyson Frizzel’s try was lovely and came from playing straight – hey, maybe that’s a good tactic?
Aaron Woods: 7
A solid game From Woods, who played nearly 30 minutes in his first stint, before coming back not long after halftime.
Made 32 tackles, including some excellent cover tackles in the first half.
Robbie Farah: 6
Showed plenty of spark early in the game, with several nippy dummy-half runs. Later on became more anonymous which, given previous criticism of over-playing his hand, is probably for the best. Made a lot of tackles.
James Tamou: 4
A poor game overall. Had only two carries for 19 metres in his first stint of 20 minutes, before adding another two carries for another 19 metres after halftime. Brought almost nothing to the table and clearly NSW’s weakest forward.
Josh Jackson: 7
Very good game, doing all the work one expects – 34 tackles while trying to compensate for having Reynolds and Walker as his side-mates is a terrific effort. But the question can you get 90 per cent of his defence and significantly more offence from someone else?
Tyson Frizell: 7
Elevated to the starting line-up and had a great game on debut, capped by a nice try from a good support run. Playing on the less familiar left edge, Frizzel looked well suited to Origin and will certainly get another run.
Paul Gallen: 7
Did Paul Gallen things all night, demonstrating a solid work rate and typical appetite for the niggle. Hard to say much more other than Origin will be very different without him
Greg Bird: 4
Demoted to the bench and then curiously used as the first middle-unit replacement at a time when NSW had a line drop out and could have used the power running of Andrew Fifita or David Klemmer. Not a great game for Bird.
David Klemmer: 5
Clearly wanted to run hard and make an impact, but his time on the field coincided with a glut of Queensland possession either side of halftime.
Andrew Fifita: 6
As with Klemmer, Fifita obviously wanted to make an impact but NSW simply didn’t have enough ball to give him the opportunity. Did make plenty of tackles, including one superb cover tackle right before halftime. NSW need to get him more ball.
Jack Bird: 6
Looked like he belonged and came close to scoring late in the game. Left out to dry a bit initially, as NSW once again didn’t seem to have a plan for their utility, but then filled in nicely for Adam Reynolds.
Should play again and could be a candidate to take Walker’s right centre spot.
John
Guest
sack Maloney you have to be kidding!! he along with tyson brought nsw back in the game late in the 2nd half
Renegade
Roar Guru
I don't think he was worst on field... But you can't sit there and say somebody who only had 11 carries hogged the ball from Walker considering Walker also had 11 runs. I don't think Walker deserved selection after 2 games, I'd put Walker on the left in Jennings spot (away from Inglis) and put jack bird on the right.
Charles NSW
Guest
Really good to see that we finally got rid of him The halves were not our problem However now that Adam Reynolds is injured do not be surprised if he comes back in With Daley performance that would be typical of what he would do
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
Daley has this amazing knack for getting the wrong player on at the wrong time. Or something like that.
steveng
Roar Rookie
Gee Edward Kelly, over exaggeration is a trait that most Qld are so good at, what with 'beautiful one day, perfect the next' anything comes out your mouths! Never mind, the NSW squad will be repaired and then when we start to beat youse and it will be 3 series to 0, lets see how youse cop that? After all, it happened before and youse whinged and wanted the SOO series cancelled altogether. lol
Nordburg
Guest
I never mentioned Tamou.Its always best to ignore facts when they don't support your argument
steveng
Roar Rookie
Geoff Toovey is the man to coach NSW, full stop, and then things will start to happen for NSW and with the above team that may suggest that should be picked, NSW will win SOO 3 2016. Otherwise it will be 3-0 to Qld and I would suggest that 'NO NSW' supporter should turn up at the SOO 3 at ANZ stadium!.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Really? Good ball. Let's drop him, he's a hog.
Tom G
Guest
worst on field? He had the job of marking Inglis.. Not a simple task. You may as well blame him for the crippled culture developed over the last decade while you're at it
Muzz
Guest
Hey Charles, You got your wish with Pearce not playing. How did that turn out for you?
While we're at it
Guest
Gallen was one of the best for Qld yet again. Interrupted the forward progress of his team time and again with a gut busting 8 metre, 20 second carry allowing Qld to set their defensive line.
While we're at it
Guest
Or grabbed his drawstring and gave it a tug, a lot more evidence required before hanging him on that charge.
Andrew Savea
Roar Rookie
I got to say NSW did good to keep fighting.. as a QLD supporter I was very nervous but I reckon for game 3 this is who NSW should go with for game 3 1. Tudesco 2. Mansour 3. Roberts 4. Bird 5. Tupou 6. Maloney 7. Austin 8. Woods 9. Peats 10. Frizell 11. Scott 12. Jackson 13. Gallen 14. Graham 15. Fifita 16. Finucane 17. Peachey
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
From a QLD fan. Frizzell was best on ground for NSW and Jackson (who I didn't rate too highly previously as much more than a poor mans Ash Harrison) wasn't too shabby either. Woods and Tamou were well below par and some serious though needs to be put in on dropping one (or both) to the bench(or completely). Farah played well... For 10 minutes then wasn't heard from. G. Bird should be gone. Gal is gone. Fifita while not as impactful as in game 1 still had strong carries and played well defensively. Klemmer wasn't good enough. Plain and simple. In the backs Moylan was ok but I can't see any reason he should hold out Tedesco barring injuries. I enjoyed the halves efforts and thought they played very well with the bounce of the ball just not favouring them on some of their kicks. Should stick with them. Walker isn't Origin quality though he didn't play badly. Jennings doesn't need to be mentioned. Mansour imo is playing a few seasons too late but still has good hands and making quality metres. Fergo is not a winger. Not fast enough nor does he have good enough hands. Bird was thrust into a halves roll off the bench and I thought played well. My 2 cents on a NSW side for next year: 1. Tedesco 2. B Moz (depending on comeback form) 3. Fergo if he's playing well 4. Bird 5. Mansour 6. Maloney 7. Reynolds 8. Fifita 9. Who knows? Ennis if he's still playing well. 10. Woods 11. Frizzell 12. Graham 13. Jackson 14. Cartwright 15. Klemmer 16. Tamou 17. Jeynolds or another prop if they don't want the utility.
Renegade
Roar Guru
Gallen had 11 carries.... Walker was David Williams in disguise.
Renegade
Roar Guru
Jackson didn't throw that offload to Moylan Baz... that was Gallen.
Charles NSW
Guest
The fact remains that Laurie Daley is not fit to be NSW SOO coach. We should consider people like Andrew Johns, Brett Kenny, Geoff Toovey as being possible candidates Something has to change as the current coach had made too many mistakes and has lost too many games
The Barry
Roar Guru
Cheers...NSW had 3 of the last 8 sets of the first half and only 4 of the first 12 in the second half. That probably lines up with a big chunk of their game time.
Brendan
Guest
Have you seen why Reynolds gave away that penalty? Its all over the news, Thaiday grabbed him on the nuts. Sam Burgess got suspended for this a few seasons ago, whats the bet Thaiday gets nothing for this incident..
Lachlan Bickley
Roar Guru
TB I don't have exact numbers but if you look at the possession flow chart on NRLstats.com you'll see that Queensland had a lot of sets either side of halftime. There's no timings attached but you can definitely get a sense of how little ball NSW had around the time that those two were on