Queensland has once again extinguished the Blues hopes of Origin glory at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
Up 1-0 in the series after the opening night victory in Sydney, the New South Wales camp and supporters had reason to believe the Blues could overcome their Suncorp hoodoo to snare a second successive win to stop Queenslands run of seven series triumphs on end.
Instead the Maroons turned on a red-hot opening quarter to lead 14-0 before going on to take the contest out 26-6, so setting up the decider back at ANZ Stadium on July 17.
Yet again controversy clouded the battle as it had in Origin I. A second half melee resulted in four players being sent to the sin bin when the Maroons were leading 18-0 Trent Merrin and Greg Bird from New South Wales and Brent Tate and Justin Hodges from Queensland.
Earlier Sam Thaiday had put Queensland on course with a try in the second minute, improved in the 17th minute by the first of Darius Boyds two tries.
The Maroons dominated the first half completing 18 of 21 sets while the Blues had only 13 sets, completing just nine.
Match details:
At Suncorp Stadium, Sydney
Queensland 26 (Darius Boyd 2, Sam Thaiday, Greg Inglis tries; Johnathan Thurston 4 conversions, penalty).
New South Wales 6 (Brett Morris try; James Maloney conversion).
Halftime: 14-0 Queensland.
Referees: Ashley Klein and Shayne Hayne.
Crowd: 51,690.
Up 1-0 in the series after the opening night victory in Sydney, the New South Wales camp and supporters had reason to believe the Blues could overcome their Suncorp hoodoo to snare a second successive win to stop Queenslands run of seven series triumphs on end.
Instead the Maroons turned on a red-hot opening quarter to lead 14-0 before going on to take the contest out 26-6, so setting up the decider back at ANZ Stadium on July 17.
Yet again controversy clouded the battle as it had in Origin I. A second half melee resulted in four players being sent to the sin bin when the Maroons were leading 18-0 Trent Merrin and Greg Bird from New South Wales and Brent Tate and Justin Hodges from Queensland.
Earlier Sam Thaiday had put Queensland on course with a try in the second minute, improved in the 17th minute by the first of Darius Boyds two tries.
The Maroons dominated the first half completing 18 of 21 sets while the Blues had only 13 sets, completing just nine.
Match details:
At Suncorp Stadium, Sydney
Queensland 26 (Darius Boyd 2, Sam Thaiday, Greg Inglis tries; Johnathan Thurston 4 conversions, penalty).
New South Wales 6 (Brett Morris try; James Maloney conversion).
Halftime: 14-0 Queensland.
Referees: Ashley Klein and Shayne Hayne.
Crowd: 51,690.
