If you missed State of Origin last night and only checked the scores this morning, you probably wouldn’t have thought NSW was up 18-16 with seven minutes on the clock.
At the final whistle, it was Queensland which secured a 26-18 victory in a fashion the Maroons have done countless times before.
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The results have some of NRL’s best shaking their heads, as the Blues again gave away another Origin win.
Speaking to Fox Sports, Corey Parker, who played 19 games for the Maroons said Origin is “about the moments” and while his former side made the most of them, the Blues defence again were questioning their performance.
“It’s about the moments. Origin is about playing the moments, it’s about coming up with effort plays at a point where you’re under enormous amounts of fatigue,” Parker said.
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“Cameron Murray, Nathan Cleary and Nicho Hynes. Three of arguably the best players in the competition and Munster was able to start on the inside of Murray and finish on the outside of Hynes to set up the two-on-one on the outside for the Hammer.
“It shouldn’t happen. It should not happen.”
Despite being favourites in recent years, the Blues have won just four of the last 17 series and could face another defeat later this month. The two sides will meet next on June 21 at Brisbane’s Lang Park.
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Blues coach Brad Fittler said following the game he will revise what went wrong in the final 10 minutes of Origin I ahead of Brisbane’s match.
“Although things didn’t look that smooth and we got to the front, got a restart and then from there it just went downhill. I thought the last 10 minutes we didn’t handle very well at all, especially when they were down to 12,” he said.
“I’ll go back and look at how that all happened, but I thought we were in control, got to the front, got a restart and then from there it sort of went backwards. But that’s the way it is.”
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