New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776909012_441_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The Maroons had two golden moments in the final 15 minutes to level the scores, both through winger Jasmine Peters, but she was tackled into touch before she could score the try.<\/p>\n
Blues half Jesse Southwell delivered the first of those, somehow keeping Peters from grounding the ball in the 57th minute even though the winger seemingly had her dead to rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat an incredible play,\u201d Phil Gould said in commentary.<\/p>\n
Inside the final 60 seconds, Teagan Berry made a desperate tackle on Peters, with the Maroons star\u2019s foot touching the sideline before putting the ball down.<\/p>\n
The Blues led 8-0 early thanks to tries from Jaime Chapman and Keeley Nizza. <\/p>\n
The Maroons had some opportunities but execution let them down.<\/p>\n
That was until Rory Owen ran onto a lovely Tamika Upton ball to score right before half time. <\/p>\n
Rory Owen slices through for the Maroons | 00:26<\/p>\n
Queensland scored the first try after the break to hit the lead when dummy-half Jada Ferguson burrowed over from close range but the Blues responded strongly just a few minutes later when Jess Sergis proved too strong for a couple of Maroons defenders.<\/p>\n
Southwell nailed the sideline conversion to give NSW a 14-10 lead – a lead they wouldn\u2019t relinquish.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second-straight series win for the Blues.<\/p>\n
BIG HITS<\/p>\n
LESSONS NOT LEARNED<\/p>\n
The Maroons rued their lack of discipline in game one but hardly fared any better at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n
Three errors and two penalties in the opening 10 minutes of Thursday night\u2019s clash had the Queenslander on the back foot early on.<\/p>\n
By the break, the Maroons had made seven errors and four penalties.<\/p>\n
An error from the normally reliable Maroons winger Julia Robinson, who put the ball down coming out of her own end.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all it took for NSW to draw first blood with Blues Jaime Chapman crossing over for a try on the back of some crafty lead-up from centre Jess Sergis.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t get any better in the second half with the Maroons finishing with 16 errors.<\/p>\n
Not even Maroons superstar Tamika Upton could stem the tide of poor execution even though she looked most likely for the home side. Upton finished with 136 run metres, four tackle busts, a linebreak and a try assist but it wasn\u2019t enough to level the series for the Maroons. <\/p>\n
RELENTLESS DEFENCE<\/p>\n
Jess Sergis and Jesse Southwell were key in orchestrating a Blues victory at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Sergis was brilliant in attack, setting up a try to Jaime Chapman and scoring one of her own with some crafty work close to the tryline. Southwell\u2019s boot helped heap plenty of pressure on the Maroons in wet conditions.<\/p>\n
But it was NSW\u2019s defence, especially on the goal line, that proved the difference. Not only did the Blues save tries, they forced plenty of errors with the physicality in contact and defensive pressure.<\/p>\n
IMPACT HOOKER<\/p>\n
Both coaches, John Strange and Nathan Cross, made a late change opting to bench their starting hookers before kick-off.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tactic that reaped results for both sides.<\/p>\n
Cross said he made the move to throw a spanner in the works.<\/p>\n
What it did do was provide a shot in the arm to the Maroons attack as fatigue set into the match in the second half.<\/p>\n
Hooker Jada Ferguson made an immediate impact when injected into the clash. Ferguson\u2019s wily effort from dummy-half kept the Maroons in the contest when it felt like the Blues had the upper hand.<\/p>\n
Blues rake Keeley Nizza also made an immediate impact after coming on, crossing the line for a try in the first half.<\/p>\n
BACK THREE TARGETS<\/p>\n
Queensland is supposed to be beautiful one day, perfect the next.<\/p>\n
But there is rain on the radar for Magic Round weekend.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s downpour, right before kick-off, made for slippery conditions and both sides struggled under the high ball.<\/p>\n
Maroons winger Jasmin Peters fumbled an early high ball.<\/p>\n
So did Blues fullback Abbi Church, who was left clutching at thin air after a spiral bomb from Maroons five-eighth Chantay Kiria-Ratu, which helped shift momentum for the Maroons late in the first half.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tactic to keep in mind for the NRL sides scheduled to hit Suncorp Stadium on Saturday with more rain forecast.<\/p>\n
Almost 24,000 fans braved the wet on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
CONCUSSION COMEBACK<\/p>\n
Keilee Joseph was taken off the field on medicab in game one after a sickening head knock, while Queensland teammate Makenzie Weale was ruled out in the first minute.<\/p>\n
Both were given a clearance to take the field at Suncorp Stadium for game two.<\/p>\n
Forward Joseph made a triumphant return as one Queensland\u2019s best in a losing side.<\/p>\n
FOLLOW ALL THE ACTION IN THE LIVE BLOG BELOW! CAN\u2019T SEE IT? CLICK HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple of outstanding try-saving tackles have helped the Blues clinch the 2026 Women\u2019s State of Origin series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,11096,323606,2105,2622,761,762,673,13392,10668,158,677,323605,13385,323604,10742,85],"class_list":["post-670382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-daniel-nuttall","tag-die-state","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-heart-of-midlothian-football-club","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-new-south-wales-blues","tag-newcastle","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-queensland-hunting","tag-queensland-maroons","tag-queensland-players","tag-scott-gardiner","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}