State of Origin 2018 Game 1: NSW Blues v Queensland Maroons – live!
06 June 2018 09:54
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Updates from the opening match of the series at the MCGFeel free to get in touch on email or tweet @PFConnolly 10.54am BST Oh alright then, here they are for real — although that bloke on the right could be league reporting legend Steve Mascord.The boys from @pekingduk are READY! #Origin pic.twitter.com/7z09UZpktw 10.52am BST Electronic duo Peking Duk have just cranked out a number on stage (that could be worded better) but I can’t say I paid much attention. I could show my age and ignorance by saying ‘Pekinhg Duk? Never heard of them!’ but I won’t. 10.48am BST NSW, as you’ve heard, have 11 on debut, the most in an Origin team (excepting 1995 when the ARL excluded Super League players) since the NSW Game 3 side in 1994.As such no-one in the team has played in a series winning match (Boyd Cordner only played game 3 in 2014, a game NSW lost after winning games one and two).The @Telstra Tracker highlights the moment Josh Addo-Carr hits his highest speed of the season so far!#Origin#NRL pic.twitter.com/eRlV7L03eX 10.38am BST Excitement is building in the ’G which will host its fifth Origin match, with the Blues holding a 3-1 advantage. The last time Origin came to Melbourne was for game two in 2015, a thriller won by NSW: 10.32am BST NSW walked, Qld got the bus. Lazy buggers.The @QLDmaroons are in the house! #Origin pic.twitter.com/YQl9TKzfLk 10.31am BST There was plenty of talk this week that Ben Hunt and Dane Gagai were struggling with injury. Was it a classic game of ducks and drakes, par for the course for the Maroons who will happily walk backwards from the centre of a room so they can say they have their backs against the wall? Was it legit?Whatever your take, both have been named as starters tonight. As expected, Michael Morgan goes to fullback in place of the injured Slater, while there is no room, even on the bench, for the dynamic Kalyn Ponga.Final teams are in! #Origin pic.twitter.com/JCrNdx3CpC 10.27am BST The Blues have turned green by walking to the ground tonight. (Did they forget their Myki cards?) This would have put them within heckling distance of all the Qld fans making their way to the MCG. Not quite like walking down Caxton St towards Lang Park but potentially unsettling all the same. 3.19am BST Apart from 2014, which turned out to be the eye of the storm, Queensland has, since 2006, torn through State of Origin like a cyclone. Eleven of the past 12 series have been won by the Queenslanders, in no small part because, blessed by providence (and, quite possibly, the power of pineapples), the Maroons have had at their disposal a collection of modern greats all peaking at the same time: Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis.If there was any consolation for long-suffering NSW fans – who have had to huddle in their cellars for so long with their tinned food, army-cots and chamber pots that they’ve forgotten what happiness feels like – it was that one day time would catch up on the greats and the storm would pass; that one blessed day they could swing open the cellar doors, feel the sun on their faces again and look up at the sky and see blue. Only blue. Continue readingread full article
