The New South Wales Blues took out a convincing and historical win over the Queensland Maroons in front of 52,000 at the first game of the annual State of Origin series. The Blues beat the Maroons 18-6, making it their first game one win in 27 years.

A hopeful Maroons coach Billy Slater bought three debutantes into this team of 17, however the gamble did not pay off for the Queensland team.

Queensland chose to kick off at the beginning of the game, but it wasn’t long before Nathan Cleary scored the first penalty shot nine minutes into the match.

The NSW all star lineup proved too experienced for the Maroons, firmly documenting themselves as the favourites from early on in the match. By halftime the Blues were already 12 points ahead of Slaters’ Maroons.

Brian To’o and Dylan Edwards both scored tries for the NSW team, while Zac Lomax scored two. Xavier Coates was the only Maroons player who scored a try.

Despite encountering a small quad injury earlier on in the week, NSW prop Payne Haas was awarded player of the match. Haas put on an impressive performance, finishing the match with 18 runs for 156 metres, 18 hit ups and 30 tackles.

“I’m just so proud to get the win, especially at Suncorp, it’s so hard to win here”, Haas told an NRL reporter post match.

“It’s been one of the best camps honestly with all the boys, we’ve worked so hard and it’s a credit to all the coaching staff as well.”

In a press conference after the match, a disappointed Billy Slater told reporters that NSW “were much better than us”.

“We were very ill-disciplined in the first half and that just snowballed against us. We didn’t see the best of the Queensland team tonight.”

The State of Origin series will head to Perth on the 18th June, playing the second of three matches at Optus stadium.

Photo: by MarioBayo is available here and used under a Creative Commons licence.