New South Wales Blues vs Queensland Maroons – Wednesday night – ANZ Stadium
New South Wales Blues
- James Tedesco (Wests Tigers)
- Blake Ferguson (Sydney Roosters)
- Josh Dugan (St George Illawarra Dragons)
- Jarryd Hayne (Gold Coast Titans)
- Brett Morris (Canterbury Bulldogs)
- James Maloney (Cronulla Sharks)
- Mitchell Pearce (Sydney Roosters)
- Aaron Woods (Wests Tigers)
- Nathan Peats (Gold Coast Titans)
- Andrew Fifita (Cronulla Sharks)
- Josh Jackson (Canterbury Bulldogs)
- Boyd Cordnor (Sydney Roosters)
- Tyson Frizell (St George Illawarra Dragons)
- David Klemmer (Canterbury Bulldogs)
- Wade Graham (Cronulla Sharks)
- Jake Trbojevic (Manly Sea Eagles)
- Jack Bird (Cronulla Sharks)
Coach - Laurie Daley
Queensland Maroons
- Billy Slater (Melbourne Storm)
- Valentine Holmes (Cronulla Sharks)
- Will Chambers (Melbourne Storm)
- Darius Boyd (Brisbane Broncos)
- Dane Gagai (Newcastle Knights)
- Jonathan Thurston (North Queensland Cowboys)
- Cooper Cronk (Melbourne Storm)
- Dylan Napa (Sydney Roosters)
- Cameron Smith (Melbourne Storm)
- Jarrod Wallace (Gold Coast Titans)
- Gavin Cooper (North Queensland Cowboys)
- Matt Gillett (Brisbane Broncos)
- Josh McGuire (Brisbane Broncos)
- Michael Morgan (North Queensland Cowboys)
- Josh Papalii (Canberra Raiders)
- Coen Hess (North Queensland Cowboys)
- Tim Glasby (Melbourne Storm)
Coach - Kevin Walters
* note: team line-ups are subject to considerable change, but will be updated as news filters through.
Queensland made seven changes following their humbling defeat in game one, and while seven changes to a QLD side is certainly unusual it isn't unprecedented. You have to go back a way to find the last time they did it – to game two of the 2002 series with Wayne Bennett as the coach. There was more of a fuss about one particular player who was named for QLD in that game. His name was TBA. It's an acronym some of you may have noticed I have embraced on this site whenever I haven't worked out who I'm tipping yet. TBA was none other than Lote Tuqiri who, by not being actually named, was able to serve a one-match suspension at club level, thus making him available for Origin selection. Pretty clever really, even if it's cheating. QLD fans take heart that they won that second game after all those changes, and went on to reclaim the series that year.
Two of the seven changes on Wednesday night are really darn important inclusions in Jonathan Thurston and Billy Slater. There's no doubt that the QLD spine of Smith, Cronk, Thurston and Slater is a better quartet than Peats, Pearce, Maloney and Tedesco. Mind you, we would have said QLD had a better spine in game one and it didn't make a lick of difference. Boyd in the centres isn't silly either. He's a vastly under-rated defender and by playing him in the centres QLD can still utilise his sublime passing game. Slater can still chime in with the ball in hand too, so NSW will have to watch as many as five creative playmakers in the QLD backline. Thurston, Cronk, Slater, Boyd and Morgan. That's a hecklot of talent – perhaps they'll get in each other's way. For QLD to have any chance they have to improve considerably and hope that NSW come down a notch. NSW played near enough to perfect football in game one and they got the result they deserved. A repeat of that performance and they win. It doesn't look like rain on Wednesday night but the pitch is likely to be heavy underfoot. With most of the NSW side based in Sydney this has to be to their advantage too. Those players from Brisbane, Townsville and even Melbourne just haven't been playing on wet surfaces as often as the Sydney clubs. It's potentially a major factor. Watch those skies.
I mentioned earlier that game two is the best game of every Origin series. That isn't strictly true, but what is true is that the series is always on the line in game two. Someone can either win the series or keep the series alive. It's intense, it's nerve-wracking, it can be bloody delightful and it can be heart-breaking. It breaks my heart, but I think the Blues can repeat their heroics from game one and take the series in front of the Blue Army.
Verdict – NSW 16 : QLD 12
First try scorer – Mitchell Pearce
Man of the Match – James Tedesco
Comments
Submitted by The Thinker on
Hi Russell,
I'm a big fan of Croker. He's the sort of bloke you'd love to have in your team. Reminds me of Alan Tongue in that respect, and Tongue never got to play Origin either.
He's under-rated that's for sure. Still only young and he's racked up 200+ NRL appearances faster than almost anyone.
Hayne has always performed at Origin level until last night. That was easily his poorest performance in a Blues jersey thus far. I can't see them kicking him out of camp after one poor game.
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