How errors, penalties and bad decisions helped New South Wales beat themselves in Origin II

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6 hours ago

New South Wales can handle Queensland; that much seems certain.
But in Perth, they lost the chance to wrap up the State of Origin series because they could not handle themselves.
A first half like a nightmare and a second half like a dream equals out to a head-scratcher.
The Blues will be favourites to win the decider and they can beat Queensland, but they can't do it if they're beating themselves at the same time.
The 26-24 loss was marked by a lack of attention to detail throughout, one which gave Queensland just enough of a carrot to level the series and New South Wales enough of a stick to break over their knee in frustration.
If it was just one out of the errors, the bad discipline, the missed goals or Nathan Cleary's hamstring injury, they might have managed to still wrap things up.
But add them all together, and it's one of the most frustrating losses in New South Wales history, and that's a very, very hot field.
The errors are the most forgivable sin. This game was practically played underwater and a few dropped balls here and there are part of the deal in such aquatic conditions.
It is harder to excuse the moments when the Blues' emotions overcame them as Ashley Klein blew an 8-0 penalty count in the first half.
Any excuse becomes harder when you account for how many penalties directly followed NSW errors.
They compounded their own mistakes over and over, like the world's most frustrating time loop.
Perhaps one or two were harsh, but blaming the referee for moments like Jarome Luai's challenge on Reuben Cotter or Zac Lomax's elbow on Trent Loiero absolves the Blues of their shortcomings and their inability to stay on the job when things got messiest.
Lomax had an unhappy night from the tee, kicking just two from five. All three of the misses were from wide out but that's what the money is for and scoring more tries than the opposition but losing anyway is the kind of thing that happens when you make a wish on an enchanted monkey's paw.
It marks just the second time in Origin history a side has scored five tries and still lost.
Outside the flow of the match, questions will and should be raised over the decision to play Cleary.
Putting him out there without the full extent of his kicking game is to play a diminished version of the Penrith halfback.
Given he is a player consumed with process to the point of obsession, it was no surprise to see him uncertain for much of the first half.
If Mitchell Moses was still there, it would be more understandable to have persisted with Cleary – the Blues would still have an elite long-kicking game out there.
But with Moses sidelined with a torn calf, it was left to Luai and Latrell Mitchell to piecemeal something together and kicking long is something they both can do, but not something they always do well.
The real twist of the knife is when New South Wales held the ball and stopped waving Queensland down the field like lollipop men, the Maroons didn't really have an answer for them.
The Blues had enough chances to win this game, even accounting for the enormous pressure they put on themselves in the first half.
As long as the football went set for set, Queensland did not really have an answer – unless they were personally escorted by the Blues to the tryline and allowed to camp there, they could not get there and they could not score.
Even half-fit, when Cleary went to the line the New South Wales left side hummed.
Brian To'o should have been awarded that rarest of accolades and been named man of the match in a losing side because he was the best player on the field by some distance.
The Blues did so many things wrong but they almost did enough things right anyway and that, in many ways, is the cruellest blow of all.
Because now the series is level and in a decider anything can happen, and a series which looked dead has come back to life.
There will be a temptation in days to come to paint this match as a classic triumph of the Maroons' spirit – that the friendless and deserted Queenslanders dug in and won against the odds by sticking together, working for their mates and overcoming the odds.
There were elements of that, for sure. Any Origin game is not won without them. But this was not an ambush, nor was it a heist.
It was a self-destruction that went on just enough until it could not be reversed, proof that New South Wales cannot beat two teams at the same time – Queensland are a tough enough opponent without adding yourself to the mix.