Posted By Staff Reporter
STATE OF ORIGIN BRISBANE: Queensland restored some pride with a comfortable 32-8 win over NSW at Suncorp Stadium last night to avoid a first State of Origin series whitewash since 2000. The Maroons dominated the game from the opening whistle but were held out for 37 minutes by a magnificent Blue wall of defence before skipper Cameron Smith latched onto Daly Cherry-Evans’ perfect kick to score under the posts. Trent Hodkinson had earlier scored a penalty to give the visitors the lead, but it was a rare foray forward by Laurie Daley’s side in the opening stanza. A Billy Slater try immediately after the restart extended the Maroons’ lead to 12-2 with Johnathan Thurston then adding a penalty after Greg Bird was placed on report for putting Gold Coast teammate Nate Myles into a dangerous position. Myles then extracted some retribution with an elbow to the throat of Blues back-rower Bird that also saw his name go on report and from the resulting penalty Josh Dugan darted over to score. Hodkinson’s conversion gave the Blues some hope, but a Darius Boyd try eight minutes from time iced the result much to the delight of the majority of the 50,155 crowd. Aidan Guerra then added some extra gloss to the scoreline with his first Origin try with Thurston adding the extras to record a perfect night with the boot. Cooper Cronk, back from injury, added a fifth try in the final minute. NSW five-eighth Josh Reynolds was also put on report for a shoulder charge on Will Chambers.
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