Queensland 26-18 New South Wales
A 12-man Queensland side score 2 tries in quick succession after a slip from Brian To’o saw New South Wales see a sudden defeat in Game 1 of State Of Origin 2023 just as victory was in their grasp.
After all the White Noise of pre-match mind games, State Of Origin 2023 begun with Indigenous performances & a light & pyrotechnic show before Origin greats, Darren Lockyer & Paul Gallen brought the State Of Origin shield onto Adelaide Oval. This was followed by Australian rock band, The Living End, building up the atmosphere for the record-Adelaide crowd of 48.613 with a 10-minute set to the lead up to kick-off. The customary Welcome To Country, conducted by Uncle Karl Winda Telfer and performance of the National Anthem, sung by Stefanie Jones, then followed. Preceding all this, just under 2 hours prior to kick-off, was an Under-18’s match between Combined Affiliated States (CAS) Blue Vs CAS Silver to help decide which players would be selected for the Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League Under-18’s Championships CAS Team. CAS Blue won 28-12.
In Brisbane, the event just begun over 3 hours prior to kick-off, at sunset at 5:02pm local time, when the Story and Victoria Bridges, City Hall, Sandgate Town Hall, the Tropical Dome & Reddacliff Place sculptures were all lit up maroon.
Broadcast-wise, it started at 7pm with the Nine Network adding a live camera to the team buses & doing interviews with players from inside the bus on the way to the stadium. Only Queensland had this as NSW had already arrived before the broadcast started so their footage was on delay or non-existent.
The Nine Network also showed the team line-ups with the respective states’ iconic bridges in the background lit up in their team’s colours, complete with computer-generated fireworks. The Sydney Harbour Bridge lit up blue complete with blue pylon projections was shown again later but despite host James Bracey saying the shot was “live”, it was actually filmed 6 nights ago, before ‘flagship’ ‘Sydney Spectacular, Vivid Sydney, started and after Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s visit to Sydney being commemorated with the Harbour Bridge being lit up in the colours of the Indian flag, which was also projected onto the pylons.
Anyway, to the game. Queensland got off to a great start with 2 quick tries (Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow & Selwyn Cobbo) 1 of which was converted, carving through the New South Wales defense. Then, the first injury of the night – a dislocated shoulder for Tom Gilbert. Liam Martin then broke through to score New South Wales’ 1st try of the night, converted. At half-time, the score was 10-6 in favour of Queensland.
Throughout the game, the Nine Network issued new ‘fatigue alerts’ when the game had gone 3 or 4 minutes without a stoppage.
During half-time, a Little Origin match was held between Elizabeth North Public School & East Torrens Public School.
New South Wales got off to a flyer in the 2nd half after a series of stumbles by Queensland saw Apisai Koroisau, score another converted try for New South Wales, bringing them into the lead for the 1st time during the match. Shortly after, Reuben Cotter was placed on report for an alleged crusher tackle on Josh Addo-Carr. This was followed by Selweyn Cobbo scoring another converted try with the littlest room available before the sideline which returned Queensland to the lead. Meanwhile, Stephen Crichton turned the tables around again after Queensland’s defence went to microsleep with another converted try.
To make matters worse for Queensland, a minute later, Thomas Flegler, was sent to the sin bin for a high knock until the final 90 seconds of the match. Murray Taulagi was interchanged at this point for a head injury assessment. Leaving Queensland with a man in the sin bin and thus, only 12 on the field and much needed talent on the sideline with injuries or injury assessments, it looked like a New South Wales victory was in sight but a slip from Brian To’o allowed an easy converted try scored by Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow. New South Wales’ spirit was broken and another unconverted try quickly followed suit, scored by Cameron Munster, to give Queensland the win in Game 1 of the 3-game series.
All successful conversions were kicked by Valentine Holmes for Queensland & Nathan Cleary for New South Wales.
The final score was Queensland 26-18 New South Wales. At this stage, if the Premiers resume ‘The Bet’ before Game 2 starts, the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be lit maroon for at least 35 minutes on Friday 14th of July 2023 with Queensland just 1 win away from 2023 series victory.
It’s so good to get the win, the way we stuck in it and held on in that second half. We spoke about our cyclone and staying in the fight and keep turning up for each other
Player of the match, Reuben Cotter (QLD)
It was everything and more. As a kid you dream of putting on a Maroons jersey. There were nerves today but glad to get the win. Everyone’s going to question myself but Billy is a good coach and he has the trust in me. They didn’t need me to do anything more or less, just my job. Every session he pulled me in and gave me advice.
Queensland fullback, Reece Walsh.
Game 2 will be held at Lang Park on Wednesday, June 21 at 8:05pm AEST & Game 1 of an expanded 2-game Women’s State Of Origin is tomorrow at 7:45pm at Western Sydney Stadium.
Sydney Spectaculars 