The New South Wales Blues have put together a second-half masterclass to dominate the Queensland Maroons 50-6 in a record-breaking Origin win.
The 44-point margin is New South Wales’ biggest ever, surpassing the 56-16 obliteration in 2000.
Tom Trbojevic became the first player to score two hat tricks in State of Origin after his three-try effort, Latrell Mitchell and Brian To’o both crossed twice, while Nathan Cleary was a perfect eight for eight kicking for goal.
Queensland had a late push in the first half that culminated with a Kurt Capewell try but, in reality, they never looked up to the level of their highly-fancied opponents and were left to rue missing 52 tackles and making 13 errors.
They will have a lot of soul searching to do ahead of Game 2 on June 27.
More Origin 1
» REACTION: Maroons are headed for a 3-0 Blue-wash after insipid Game 1 display
» MAROONS PLAYER RATINGS: Queensland struggle all across the park
» BLUES PLAYER RATINGS: Turbo stars but all NSW players dominate
» All the talking points from State of Origin 1
» AS IT HAPPENED: Game 1 scores, highlights, result and blog
» Team news for NSW and Queensland ahead of Origin 2
The Blues dominated the first half, racing to a 20-0 lead courtesy of a double on debut to To’o after Trbojevic broke the deadlock just before the 20-minute mark.
Trbojevic was all over the Maroons early and drew an early penalty after Daly Cherry-Evans shepherded his run to a kick – which gave the visitors an early 2-0 lead.
Christian Welch put the Maroons a man down a few minutes later following a head clash with To’o that saw him fail the subsequent head injury assessment.
The Maroons actually had one of the best early chances to score the first try after being awarded a set restart deep in Blues territory, but Cam Munster didn’t hear the call and kicked on the first tackle.
The Blues punished them after a silly Kyle Feldt penalty soon after, with a superb Cleary ball releasing Trbojevic for a nice first try.
A superb Damien Cook run through the middle of the Maroons defence set up To’o’s first try in the corner, with the Origin debutant crossing again soon after thanks to a superb offload by Tariq Sims.
The Maroons struck back closer to half time thanks to a miscue by Trbojevic, however. He was caught badly out of position on a pass to the sideline and then laid a fairly poor tackle on Capewell – allowing the forward-turned-centre to score.
That made the score 20-6 at the break, but any momentum the Maroons hoped to carry into the sheds was dissipated soon after.
Trbojevic atoned for his earlier error with a ripping grubber close to the line that gave Mitchell his first try, extending the visitors’ lead to 26-6.
Jarome Luai had the best moment of his Origin debut close to the hour mark, with a great dummy on Felise Kaufusi releasing him up the middle of the ground and two passes later it was in the the hands of Trbojevic for try number two.
It was well and truly party time by that point after Xavier Coates completely bungled a high ball from Cleary, allowing Mitchell to pounce for his second try of the night. Daniel Saifiti then scored a soft try to help the Blues break the 40-point barrier with 15 minutes still to play.
The Blues then turned it on for the flashiest try of the night, with Cleary breaking the line with a superb dummy and passing off to James Tedesco, with the fullback then gifting Trbojevic his second Origin hat trick with a sublime flick pass.
Queensland Maroons – 6
NSW Blues – 50
Tries
Maroons: Capewell 35′
Blues: T. Trbojevic 18′, 59′, 69′, To’o 23′, 27′, Mitchell 49′, 61′, Saifiti 64′
Goals
Maroons: Holmes 1/1 36′
Blues: Cleary 8/8 10′, 20′, 29′, 51′, 60′, 62′, 66′, 70′, Mitchell 1/1 24′
Adam
Roar Guru
It's because I've wanted to centres to pass to each other! It's a fantastic position that too many coaches (and players) want to forget
Conan of Cooma
Roar Rookie
Oh man, that crowd. Townsville would have been flowing with extra salty water last night.
Rob
Guest
Munster’s kicking motion was really stupid. The knee thing jumping has to penalised IMO it’s a no brainer call just not convinced it’s deliberate. Cleary should have been off to get the bleeding fixed 5 min before he was told to leave. Gee I often think the officiating can be bias but was that a NSW ref (Badger) dressed in blue proudly sitting behind Fittler in the box cheering? I’ve never seen an official openly cheering in a coaches box in my life. What was the ear piece doing in his ear? Anyway the line speed of NSW was amazing and the Maroons had next to no go forward. The Blues dominated from the opening minute.
Paul
Guest
Fifita.. Played the same way he does for the Titans. Loves to have the ball to run freely in the open space. Hates to work hard in defence. Same as all the Titans. Queensland best . Deliberate knee in the back of Luai, late shoulder charge on Mitchell after he’d passed the ball, Munster kicking Martin. Pretty pathetic! The NSW forwards dominated Queensland. The NSW halves did exactly what they’ve been doing for Penrith. Except they had Turbo, Mitchell & Tedesco in this game. Who killed it!
Paulo
Roar Rookie
I don’t watch a lot of league, but always make an effort for origin. There was so much crap and niggle off the ball, it was shocking. It’s not playing hard, it’s just cheap nasty dog shots.
vonManstein
Roar Rookie
Hell yeah Dan.. it’s the blues dynasty all over again.
Albo
Roar Rookie
Yep ! Its just the first of a 3 match series. We have been here before. Another win at Suncorp would silence a lot of doubters about the NSW team, but a loss could be disastrous.
Rob
Guest
Well the Blues put the cleaners through the Maroons tonight. To good across the park and certainly on the edges. Coats made a good career choice signing with Melbourne. He looked all at sea and the kid needs a good coaching. Capewell as much as he played out of his skin last series isn’t up to matching it with Turbo. Hammer was a better option IMO. Which brings me to the biggest question about the result. Green isn’t the best coach and Thurston has little to nothing to bring to the table IMO. I wasn’t totally convinced about playing Grant for more than 60min and not having someone like Hunt or Mahoney as cover instead of a hurt AJ. Brimson. Missed Papalii, Ponga and Welch. Oh well the NSW boys have been looking to get square for last years botched series and certainly got their attitudes right in this one. Feldt played alright and most of the boys tried hard just run into a far superior team tonight.
peterj
Roar Rookie
Apologies Scott. I suggested you were being fanciful by predicting a new win by 14. Looks like you were being kind to QLD!
Tom G
Roar Rookie
The centre position is radically underrated thats why forwards are increasingly finding their way into 3 & 4 jumpers. Ask anyone who played against Matai and Lyon which players they rated in the opposition.
The Barry
Roar Guru
There was a play in the first ten minutes when NSW kicked deep and the Queensland forwards were so slow to get back onside, a couple never made it. They looked gassed even then after a frenetic start
Ex NSW supporter
Guest
Is this the same Qld (worst side ever) that won easily last year???
no one in particular
Roar Guru
NSW picked a team that plays 2021 rugby league, Qld picked a team that plays 2018 rugby league. Qld need to pick a team that can score 20, not try to hold NSW to the teens. Their outside backs were very quiet, I couldn't recall seeing Gagai at all
egbert
Guest
I think you hit the nail there: Paul Green. Is he really a QLD State of Origin coach?
Dan
Roar Rookie
Big brother thing is garbage, QLD rorted the rules for the last 15 years thinking it was all about them (I know you lot struggle to count past 1 but origin requires 2 teams). From poaching kiwis and NSW players, (not to mention having Bill Harrigan let them do whatever they wanted) origin was p!ss for years. Get this in ya QLDers, when you get 50 put on you in a place like Townsville and the only guy who scored for you is a gay porn star……… well ………..QLDeeeeerrrrrrrr oh hang on.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Hey Mr Pryde...go ahead. I left myself completely open.
egbert
Guest
Not sure I've ever seen such a difference in fitness in an Origin game. QLD were gassed at 55 minutes and NSW forwards were all over them. Delightful.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Righto...let me have it.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Brilliant performance, the tries NSW scored were incredible. Just watching the replays, so many clean line breaks and long range tries A lot against Queensland. Grant and Munster looked a bit off the pace in their first games after a month out. They were a bit light in the middle and lost Welch after 10 minutes. Fifita looked their most likely early until he got a head knock, went off for a long time and then didn’t get a chance I never write Queensland off. This is NSW’s third big win in the last three years and each time Queensland have bounced back. Hard to see what they’ll do about NSW outside backs though. But we probably thought that before Game 3 last year Queensland were always going to play this tough but I think they got a bit carried away with the off the ball stuff. Maybe they were cheap shots, maybe not, but they gave away a few penalties and a lot of momentum for little reason. Feldt taking JAC out was daft... the ball was already in the grand stand
JVGO
Guest
On that performance the test team would be the NSW squad.