That was a tough game of footy to watch as a Qld'er. NSW definitely ambushed us and did exactly what they said they would do... Run the bigger Qld forwards ragged. They dominated the forward battle and that isn't something easily achieved against the Qld pack! I thought Farah was excellent, Gallen himself, and Tamou gave them plenty of go forward. Bird was also very good, but he is a grub of the highest order.
On the other hand, there is an even bigger difference between the Qld and NSW backline. Even with Cronk having the worst performace I recall seeing from him, and Slater a bit off his game, we looked dangerous every time we came in NSW's last 20, while NSW never looked like scoring, except from a dropped bomb.
Still, we will need big improvements from Cronk, Harrison and Scott, if we want to decide this series in Sydney, they were frankly well below par.
So no, NSW wasn't the better team, but they were certainly good enough to rattle Qld and can look back with pride to this game.
I know there's gonna be uproar in NSW about the refs calls, but they were both justified imo.
- Jennings can't come running from 40mtrs, throw a punch as the 4th or 5th man in, and expect not to walk.
- On the GI try, it's simple really... Farah kicks the ball into GI, who then grounds it. And even if GI didn't ground it, it should be a penalty try, as Farah deliberatly kicked the ball out of his hands. That's still illegal AFAIK...
On the Broncos players, Civo clearly struggled to cope with the NSW speed around the ruck and from the line in his first stint, but was much better in the second. Thaiday was himself really, maybe not as strong in attack as usual, but certainly great in defense. Hodges was quiet, but still did his trademark dummy runs and trademark defense, although he was seriously let down by Cronk, who had a night to forget. Gillett came in to relieve the pressure and seemed a bit caught out with the different beast that is Origin, but he will be better for it. Finally, the best Bronco was Hannant, he bent their line with each run, defended strongly and didn't get nearly enough time on the paddock imo. Hopefully he can back up against the Storm!
Finally, Nate Myles MOM? He did plenty of good work in the ruck, but seriously... Tate deserved it by far. It's incredible how he turns into a superhuman when he puts the marron jersey on!
Johnathan Thurston was a good second with his decisive work leading to both Boyd's tries, and Hannant was the third best for mine, despite his relatively short stint.