The Melbourne Storm’s stars of the future have shone as a tough 24 hours for the NSW Blues continued, with the Queensland Maroons claiming a 28-14 win in the men’s Under 19s State of Origin clash on Thursday evening.

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Hayden Watson and Alize Clarke, who were both part of Melbourne’s SG Ball squad this season, scored tries in the second half as the Maroons held off a fast-finishing Blues side.

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Watson is quickly developing into a first grader of the future for the Storm, having been elevated to their NSW Cup side recently, and has been earmarked as a potential long-term replacement for Jahrome Hughes.

Of course, Hughes himself is contracted at Melbourne until the end of 2030 so he won’t be leaving anytime soon but the same goes for Watson, who is also on the books with the Storm through to 2030.

“The thing I really liked with Watson tonight was we saw the full kit bag,” former NRL halfback Chad Townsend said on Fox League.

“We saw the passing game, the kicking game and the running game. I mean, wow. For a young man he’s only little in stature, but the heart of a lion. Nine tackle breaks he finished with, he was super impressive.”

Hayden Watson put on a show.Source: FOX SPORTS

Watson, who in May was crowned SG Ball Player of the Year, scored a sensational solo try in the second half with a show of speed and power closed to the line.

It came after Watson gave his Storm teammate Clarke early ball a few minutes earlier, with the Maroons centre proving too quick for his opposite man as he scored in the 41st minute.

It capped off an impressive performance for Clarke, who had a try-saving tackle in the first half to go with his 119 run metres, six tackle busts and three offloads.

Clarke also helped set up the game-winning try with a late offload to set up Tupou Francis.

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Francis re-signed with the Broncos until the end of 2028 and will be a top 30 player next year, with the highly-rated forward set to play a key role in filling the enormous hole left by Payne Haas’ departure.

Francis scored a double in Thursday’s game, running for 83 metres to go with two tackle busts and 35 tackles.

Elsewhere, second rower Bishop Neal — who has been dubbed the “next SBW” and “generational” — put on a show with five offloads in the Queensland win.

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But Townsend was particularly impressed by the fact Neal didn’t always look to the second-phase play first, instead also running 13 times for 94 metres in the win.

“The thing I love about Bishop Neal is he thinks run first, offload second,” Townsend said in commentary for Fox League.

Queensland was first on the board in Thursday’s game through hooker Amare Wynyard, who ducked out of dummy-half after a quick play-the-ball from Cody Starr.

Francis then powered over for his first try, before the Blues closed the gap as Marcellus Iakopo reached out to score in the 27th minute.

It was largely the Maroons dominating from that point, with the class of their spine shining through.

A determined try from Toby Batten gave the Blues a brief glimmer of hope late in the second half, but Francis scored his second in the 64th minute to put the result beyond doubt.