Irrepressible Tangent

Have you ever experienced déjà vu? By the end of the match I could have sworn I was still watching the first game of the series again. Hang-on, it was NSW that won, and that guy in the centres he couldn’t be stopped. But now it is Qld on top and their centre was outstanding – oh that’s right, they swapped jerseys after the game, just forgot to put on their real ones before the second match!

Just who has been better/worse so far – Qld were poor in the first, but lifted in the second. NSW dominated but were completely outplayed by the end of the second match. At this stage of the series, Qld have everything going for them. So large was the drop-off from NSW given their all-around excellence in game one, they have a mountain to climb. Working against them is that the temptation will be to make changes, and given their performance rightfully so. One must be careful because mass changes at this stage can disrupt the bond within the squad, so the selectors have lots of work to do. About the only thing in the Blues’ favour is they are going back to Sydney to play the match, and conditions may not be as firm under foot as they were in Brisbane, allowing the game to return to a battle around the rucks.

What happened to NSW? Can the game be put down to just “one of those things”? Craig Bellamy doesn’t coach many teams that have off-days. In many ways the game was very similar to the 2006 Grand Final between the Broncos and Storm. The Storm with all of its regular season dominance couldn’t get it done on the day, it couldn’t get its game in gear. By contrast, Brisbane, which had been good but not great to get into the final game of the season, was able to bring its best game to play under pressure. Its experienced players dominated, and they seemed to be playing against a team which had to “pay its dues”. On Wednesday night NSW looked like a team of nervous rookies, while Qld swept all before it in a marvellous team effort.

By the end of the match, NSW were so tired from defending they offered nothing in attack. The Qld defence were eating up the one-out NSW runners. It is one thing to have nothing at the end of the game, but what did NSW offer early? Did their inability to control the ruck not allow them to play the expansive game they showed early in game one? Did Bellamy change tactics? Was Peter Wallace overawed with the reality of backing up his excellent performance in game one? NSW dropped so much ball, were getting hammered by the referee in the penalty count, they probably never gave themselves a chance of getting into the game. Couple this with their forwards being outplayed, Qld working harder to support the fullback on kick returns, and the freshness of their players in attack due to their dominance of possession, and you have your answer.

Congratulations to the Qld brains trust for their changes to the starting team. As explained previously Karmichael Hunt is Qld’s best fullback. The team just seems so confident with him there and his physicality is exactly what Qld needs from its fullback. After the man with one knee (Darren Lockyer) was ruled out, Qld needed a ball-player so Scott Prince was given another shot at representative football. Suddenly Qld had two ball players in the front line, forcing NSW to respect their attacking options. Scott didn’t have the greatest match, his kicking game was poor overall, but his very presence did so much to add to the games of Cam Smith and Johnathon Thurston. Thurston was outstanding, back to his best. As much as the post-match discussion was about the game of Greg Inglis, on almost every occasion it was Thurston that was feeding him. He was able to get his outside men to keep good depth to their attack and he attracted so much defence it created space for Inglis.

What of Greg Inglis? After his performance in game one he must have thought his Christmas’s had come at once. What was Mark Gasnier doing lining up on his inside shoulder? Time and again Inglis was given great ball by Thurston (at depth, moving forward, space between himself and the defensive line) and must have been licking his chops. A big hole right in front of him and only little Steve Turner to stop him passing to an unmarked Darius Boyd. If that wasn’t happening Steve Turner would drop back and leave space everywhere for Thurston, Inglis and Boyd to create havoc. Surely NSW couldn’t be this bad again? Was there any line-speed from NSW in defence at all? What a wonderful game from Brett Tate. He is probably Qld’s player of the series so far. He and Hunt typify what the Qld team has been all about the last two series. Their leadership to other players is amazing; they are two players that clearly lead by example.

Will the NSW forwards stand up? Completely outplayed by their Qld counterparts, the temptation is to make big changes. NSW were desperately short of firepower up front. Steve Simpson and Craig Fitzgibbon had the sort of games that make you remember why they haven’t been selected for some time. Do the selectors look at Mark O’Meley, Luke Bailey, or others. Luke O’Donnell is a big loss, his aggression would be welcome, but he has problems with the judiciary. Jarrod Hayne may come back if his suspension is over, but he wouldn’t have played any football for some time. Most likely there will be a change in the halves. Peter Wallace will probably be dumped in favour of Kurt Gidley, allowing NSW to bring a ball player into 5/8th and returning Greg Bird to the forwards.

Thank goodness Qld did the right things and kept the series alive. I also look forward to Willie Masons’ description of NSW fans (those that turn up), after describing Qld fans as “nutbag rednecks” – the words of an Australian captain? No, don’t think so. But Willie is rugby league in Sydney, and Origin is all the better because of it. Bring on Game III.

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Tags: 2008 Origin, Maroons v Blues, NSW v QLD, Origin Game 2, Origin Game II, rugby league, SOO2

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 11:36 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.