A horror start to the State of Origin series has left the NSW Blues with a mountain of work to do in the second half against the Queensland Maroons at Accor Stadium.
The game, played during the opening minutes in drizzly rain, kicked off with neither team keen on throwing the ball around, but Blues errors would let the Maroons onto the attack multiple times in the opening exchanges.
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The Maroons scored first through Robert Toia in the ninth minute, with Sam Walker taking the line on and rolling it in behind, before Robert Toia chased through to score.
Just four minutes later, the Maroons would score again, this time off a Stephen Crichton error.
A freakish offload from Harry Grant opened space for the Maroons, who would send the returning Thomas Flegler in untouched under the posts.
The Maroons would be matching the clock after 18 minutes after a carbon copy of the first try, this time off a Brian To'o error, occurred on the other side of the park with a Cameron Munster grubber doing the job for Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.
The Blues then gave away a penalty on another error, with Sam Walker slotting a penalty goal to take the score to 20 points to 0.
The Blues finally started to get back into the game, and would score their first try off a grubber of their own, Nathan Cleary setting up Hudson Young.
That might have cut the gap to 14 points, but Queensland would keep fighting their way through to halftime, and with the bunker confirming Cameron Murray couldn't score off yet another grubber, the first half sees the Maroons head into the sheds with a comfortable 14-point lead.
Match summary
NSW Blues 6 (Try: Hudson Young; Conversion: Nathan Cleary 1/1) trail Queensland Maroons 20 (Tries: Robert Toia, Thomas Flegler, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow; Conversions: Sam Walker 3/3; Penalty Goals: Sam Walker 3/3)
