After a bright start, a forgettable last hour saw the Maroons downed 44-12 in game two. Billy Slater has a lot of thinking to do before game three in Brisbane but until then, here’s how the Queensland players went on a slippery night in Perth.
1. Kalyn Ponga: Among Queensland’s best. Was important early when the Blues were right into them, especially cleaning up a Munster charge down. Great ball to Kaufusi for the first try, made the linebreak for the second try but was overwhelmed when the dam broke. Knights fans will be mindful of yet another head knock. 7/10
2. Selwyn Cobbo: All those errors people were talking about in the lead-up to the series returned, including a bad, bad drop to turn over possession when his team were trying to work through Kafusi’s sinbinning. 3/10
3. Valentine Holmes: Laid on a try after Ponga made a break, but other than that very little impact on this one from the Queensland veteran. 4/10
4. Dane Gagai: The Blues were all over his side of the park. No chance to impact in attack and couldn’t deal with all that business in defence. Not his finest Origin night. 3/10
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
5. Murray Taulagi: Amidst making some good runs, his night turned rough after he got caught in the spotlight of a Matt Burton bomb, then later spilled the ball to present the Blues with a back-breaker try. 4/10
6. Cameron Munster: Along with Ponga, tried to make things happen but it just wasn’t working in the face of the NSW defence. Had two kicks charged down in the first 13 minutes and had zero room to move with ball in hand. He was almost perfect in Game 1 but this was a different story. 5/10
7. Daly Cherry-Evans: Kicking game was good when Munster’s was under siege early, but DCE didn’t get the chance to impose himself on this at all. His game will be unfairly compared to Nathan Cleary’s man of the match performance. 5/10
8. Lindsay Collins: His first Origin start was good defensively, but he had to have much more impact when he was running the ball. That’s what his team needed. 4/10
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
9. Ben Hunt: A really good early stint with the right balance of pass or run but couldn’t impose himself when the Blue wall kept pushing forward. Played dinged up in the second half and had a spell at lock. 5/10
10. Josh Papalii: Very limited impact and another short stint, which surely needs to be addressed or explained. NSW were ready for him. Made some decent hits in defence, as always. 2/10
11. Kurt Capewell: Did his job by making tackles and trying to keep the Maroons line together, had to shuffle position but still kept putting in. 5/10
12. Felise Kaufusi: A nice finish for the game’s opening try before Ash Klein sent him to the bin for Queensland’s repeated infringements. His usual solid defence fell away with the rest of the team. 5/10
13. Tino Fa’asuamaleaui: A good first half for Tino but not a lot of time or impact on the field in the second 40. 5/10
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Interchange
14. Harry Grant: Couldn’t bring the same attacking energy from game one with the Blues a man up and on the march, but he tackled hard and kept trying to make things happen. 5/10
15. Jai Arrow: Defended well enough, went off for an HIA and offered very little to Queensland’s attack in the 27 minutes he played. His spot is surely under the microscope. 2/10
16. Patrick Carrigan: Also among Queensland’s best. Brought energy with him again when he arrived, ending with a game high 41 tackles and worked for 103 metres as well. Threw himself into his work but had no mates up the middle this time round. 7/10
17. Jeremiah Nanai: Came on in the 51st minute and had a bad, bad whiff on Jarome Luai for the try which truly opened the floodgates. Not his fault, because the Blues were hitting their rhythm just when he was trying to catch the game’s pace. 3/10
Albo
Roar Rookie
100% kk ! I really enjoyed all of the matches last weekend with the men's & women's U19 matches, the Womans & Men's SOO matches . It shows that the game is in pretty good hands with the quality still coming through. 4-0 to the Blues was also heartwarming for the weekend ! :silly:
Tony
Roar Guru
Phew!
matth
Roar Guru
I didn’t say I would answer the phone!
Tony
Roar Guru
You wouldn't lower yourself
matth
Roar Guru
Yep I called that. I’m waiting on the call from NRL 360.
matth
Roar Guru
But he misses so many tackles. NSW scored from one of his 4 misses and he was t on the field that long.
Tight-Head
Roar Rookie
I thought DCE’s kicks were pretty good - he regularly found grass, the Maroons were just too gassed to chase hard enough to take advantage of it and put the Blues under pressure. The amount of time the blues back 3 had to pick up the ball, decide what to do and throw rubbish passes before still making good metres tells me the chase was very slow.
kk
Roar Pro
Albo, The Suncorp Choir awaits the whistle of Ashley the Equaliser. A call to the captain and open palms to the shed will create a response to set a new target for a miced up Chad Townsend. WYAT, Albo. I was greatly impressed by the U19 games, especially the standard set in the men's match. It was riveting stuff, yet no review appears to have been made. They could actually pass the Steeden both ways at full pace and PTB properly. It is wonderful to know our code has such talent in the wings.
Nick
Roar Guru
I'll tell you what though, Tony. The pundits were proven true: the team who scored more points after 80 minutes would be the one that won the match. How prophetic.
Nick
Roar Guru
Yup. Qld need to put in place a horses for courses approach on the coaching. They need get Graham Lowe in for game 3. He's the king of home matches. He has a 3/3 home game record. He's also the greatest non-Australian coach of an origin team. The list of foreign coaches in SOO is just one line long, and no other foreign coach can claim a better record than his 50% complete w/l.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
Papa usually responds like the great player he is - Ricky dropped him if I recall - he was probably carrying a bit of weight - and he bounced back bigger than ever. But I don't think that is his issue at the moment. Not sure what is going on.
The Sporacle
Roar Rookie
Maybe, but I've often had to eat my words when making calls on qld players, I'd expect him to bounce back game 3. He's the most experienced guy in origin at the moment. Good luck to him whatever happens, great player :thumbup:
Albo
Roar Rookie
But they were still caned 8-5 in the penalties , yet again ! :silly:
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
Slater has never won a home game as coach. An appalling record. He can only win away.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
Yeah - I'm wondering if Papa's origin career might just about be over if this is all that Billy wants from him. Joe Tapine has become the number 1 prop at the Raiders. Maybe someone needs to put the hard word on Papa to lift his game.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
Nanai is a weapon - Qld needed his spark in that second half
PGNEWC
Roar Rookie
We are told QLD live and breath Origin and get very upset when they lose -- The NSW Media are trying to install this same level of Upsettingness when we lose - especially in Sydneysiders who dont care about anything much- in the hopes it will gee the team up. This time it worked.
The Sporacle
Roar Rookie
I think that the way NSW were pushing though the middle that maybe Papa may have been more of a liability getting caught out laterally if they bought him back on. Teddy would have been a nightmare for him :thumbup:
Tony
Roar Guru
A game of two halves :stoked:
Don
Roar Rookie
Not sure what the point of picking Papali’i is? Only getting 20 odd minutes a game. Agree Papali’i had a massive and underrated first 20 minutes in game 1 and the limited use worked, because Carrigan and Collins came on against guys who Papali’i had worked over. But game 2, and his initial impact was a totally different scenario and Slater needed to use him differently. He needed to be brought back on not long after half time. He’s a big body who tires defenders and can draw a penalty / 6 again in his favour. Slater will need to make changes on top of those forced by injury. They’ll certainly look at David Fifita, Mo Fotuaika and Flegler as forward options to add impact. Corey Oates should get a start ahead of Taulagi. If the forwards do their jobs properly in game 3 you’d have to think that Gagai and Holmes couldn’t repeat the rubbish thrown up last night. Need to get a better media campaign around the NSW use of blockers around Cleary. Fittler played the refs like a violin so they were looking at everything for infringing, not just ruck speed.