NSW State of Origin legend Andrew Johns has made a scathing call on the Blues in the wake of their consolation victory in game three, saying the players who butchered the closing stages of the series-opener should be “haunted” by the failure for the rest of their careers.
Between the 69th and 79th minutes of game one, the Blues had an extra man on the field because Maroons front-rower Thomas Flegler was sent to the sin bin.
The Maroons were dealt another blow in the 73rd minute, losing winger Murray Taulagi to a head injury assessment.
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Having done his best patchwork, coach Billy Slater had Ben Hunt playing at left centre and David Fifita right centre when the full-time whistle blew.
Yet in the period that followed Flegler being marched to the sin bin, Queensland fought back from two points down to win 26-18.
NSW was also hindered late in the game with Nicho Hynes being thrown into right centre after Tom Trbojevic left the field for a head injury assessment in the 69th minute, but Queensland was faced with greater adversity in the dying stages of the match and charged back to win.
A night after watching the Blues beat the Maroons 24-10 to knock back Queensland’s pursuit of a series whitewash, Johns lamented the botched opening game on 2GB’s Wide World of Sports radio.
“That game one, the last 12 minutes, should haunt those players for the rest of their footy careers,” said Johns, who’s a Blues advisor.
“The game was won … down to 12 men, players out of position, I think Ben Hunt was even playing in the centres at one stage.
2023 State of Origin Highlights: NSW v QLD – Game III
“They lost that game and it’s one to really haunt the players.
“It would have been nice to win it last night in front of a packed crowd and win the series, but not to be, so got to learn from those errors.”
Johns weighed in on Origin scheduling in his chat with 2GB radio, revealing he’s against rugby league’s pinnacle product being staged in Adelaide, as well as endorsing New Zealand as an option.
Game one of this year’s series was held at Adelaide Oval, game two at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium and game three at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.
Gal’s ‘what ifs’ for Blues
“For mine, you take our best product, State of Origin, to somewhere you can grow the game,” said the eighth rugby league Immortal.
“Adelaide? Are we going to produce any players from Adelaide? Not a chance in the world.
“Will we have more viewers, more people following the game from Adelaide? Maybe a tiny percentage.
“If you want to take it somewhere, take it to New Zealand. We can really grow the game over there. The Warriors are doing great things there. If you’re going to move it … I think the only place I’d be looking to move it would be New Zealand.
“But other than that, I’d probably be keeping it at Sydney and Brisbane.”
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State of Origin III 2023 in pictures: All the colour of the Blues v Maroons game three
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