Game of Thrones taught us to hold the door, but Blues players simply must hold on to the ball if they want to win game two in Melbourne after they overcame an awful start in the State of Origin series opener.
Slow starts have been a theme for NSW in their past three first halves, with Queensland racking up a dominant 66-12 advantage in the opening 40 minutes across those matches.
The Blues were down 20-0 after just 20 minutes at Accor Stadium but stormed home to steal victory after Kalyn Ponga was sent off.
But they can’t rely on the opposition being reduced to 12 men for the final 23 minutes at the MCG on Wednesday night, with coach Laurie Daley needing to get his troops going from the outset.
NSW made an error after just 77 seconds in Sydney, and things didn’t improve with Stephen Crichton and then Brian To’o spilling the Steeden.
To’o made several errors in slippery conditions that were so uncharacteristic from one of the greatest wingers of the modern era.
“Hopefully never again,” he replied when asked about the mistakes.
“That was definitely a crucial moment for me because I hold myself to a high standard and I know the jersey comes with a responsibility, so the last thing you want to do is let your teammates down.
“God willing that doesn’t happen again.”
Isaah Yeo has played plenty of games with To’o for Penrith and NSW, and he was more focused on how he responded with a game-high 188m rather than his three errors.
“He certainly doesn’t need to promise anything because he’s played a lot of games and that one was very uncharacteristic,” the Blues skipper said.
“I just love how he attacked the game after that because there would have been a lot of blokes who would’ve gone into their shells after that.
“We need to work on it (our handling) because you don’t want to do it at NRL level, let alone in the Origin arena and the intensity that comes with it.
“You don’t want to harp on it too much because you want guys to remain confident and play footy, but you can’t put yourself on the back foot like that.”
Mitch Barnett was the man who set the tone with the first dropped ball of the night in Sydney, but one thing that helped was the number of club captains in the team who ensured their teammates didn’t panic.
“It’s the characters you thought would have stood up,” he said.
“Nathan (Cleary) was pretty instrumental in that one, wasn’t he? And I just thought the way he handled that second half in particular, only he could have done that.”
Originally published as ‘Never again’: The Blues have had three shocking starts in a row, with one key area of their game letting them down