![\"Roy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/29b8785009d0a7b2a6436d8d628ed2c6ae33d36d.png\")
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n When big games are on the line, there is nothing like the poise of a football coach\u2019s son.<\/p>\n And the Blues had two of these skilful scions to help them turn Queensland\u2019s 20-point lead in the opening State of Origin at Accor Stadium on Wednesday night into a 22-20 NSW win<\/a>.<\/p>\n Halfback Nathan Cleary is the son of four-time premiership Penrith coach, Ivan, while five-eighth Ethan Strange is the son of NSW\u2019s victorious women\u2019s Origin coach<\/a>, John. Both made crucial plays at critical times on Wednesday night, employing lessons learned from sitting in hundreds of half-time dressing rooms ruled by their fathers.<\/p>\n Cleary\u2019s 40\/20 kick set up field position for a try he scored to narrow Queensland\u2019s lead to 20-16 with less than 10 minutes left. He then launched the towering bomb which tumbled from the sky and allowed fullback James Tedesco to level the scores<\/a> with 90 seconds left. Cleary\u2019s conversion secured the win.<\/p>\n As Blues captain and Cleary\u2019s Penrith co-skipper, Isaah Yeo said after the game, \u201cThat 40\/20 won us the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Cleary was voted man of the match. That should subdue the critics who say he has not made Origin his own.<\/p>\n Strange, drafted into the team on Tuesday after a training injury to Mitchell Moses, demonstrated a calm and confidence beyond his 21 years. Before the match, he asked coach Laurie Daley to devise a play where he could run at Queensland captain Cameron Munster.<\/p>\n They play on opposite sides of the field, meaning Strange would briefly have to switch to the Blues\u2019 right to allow him the chance to take on Munster on the Maroons\u2019 left. In the end, it wasn\u2019t necessary as it was Munster who switched sides, seeking to exert dominance over a player destined to wear his Australian jumper.<\/p>\n Strange hit Munster with a lethal low body tackle and dislodged the ball. NSW scored their first try shortly after when Cleary put a short kick through for Strange\u2019s Raiders teammate, Hudson Young.<\/p>\n Munster\u2019s mistake was Queensland\u2019s first error after establishing their 20-0 lead. For most of the first half, the Maroons played like the Maroons. They were ruthless and relentless in defence, and daring and decisive with the ball when needed.<\/p>\n Coach Billy Slater\u2019s men capitalised on the ruck errors made by Mitchell Barnett, Stephen Crichton and Brain To\u2019o to gain territory and score three tries.<\/p>\n Only Barnett\u2019s early error was questionable but Yeo didn\u2019t challenge it, principally because coach Daley had instructed him to \u201ckeep your powder dry,\u201d calculating that the bunker would rule lost ball from a bad carry in wet conditions, rather than a strip.<\/p>\n Crichton and To\u2019o each lost the ball on a further two occasions and are expected to be dropped for Origin II.<\/p>\n Despite the NRL\u2019s protestations that the match would be refereed like an NRL game, the first half produced only three penalties and three set restarts.<\/p>\n Sure, the code\u2019s best players would make fewer errors but, as usual, there were breaches ignored.<\/p>\n The second half did resemble an NRL match, particularly when referee Ashley Klein was committed to send off Queensland fullback Kalyn Ponga for a shoulder charge which made contact with the head of debutant winger Tolu Koula.<\/p>\n The 79,186 crowd bayed like Romans at the Colosseum, demanding his removal. It was an The parallels with an NRL game continued in the second stanza with a six-again and a try to Strange which was taken off him by the bunker ruling an obstruction.<\/p>\n But Strange didn\u2019t wait long to score his debut Origin try following a long scything run to narrow the scores to 20-10.<\/p>\n Another ruck infringement call against Queensland preceded Cleary\u2019s try for a 20-16 scoreline, Related Article At half-time, with the Blues down 20-6, Daley told his team that a victory would be \u201cone of the greatest achievements in NSW history.\u201d<\/p>\n After the match, he repeated the line, adding, \u201cBut f—, it took you a while.\u201d<\/p>\n His future looked dim at half-time, but now it will be the turn of the Queensland media to unsheathe their daggers, although they will predictably be aimed at Klein.<\/p>\n In the jubilant Blues dressing room, Cleary and Strange were deep in conversation.<\/p>\n Strange only made one error when he passed the ball off the ground. \u201cI won\u2019t do that again,\u201d he told this masthead.<\/p>\n Daley has a big decision to make whether to return Moses to the starting team for the second Origin at the MCG, or retain Strange at five-eighth.<\/p>\n Some call him a throwback because he is a pure footballer, but he is better than that. He is the future of NSW and Australia.<\/p>\n Daley\u2019s generous and passionate post-game talk was interrupted by a loud cry from Victor Radley\u2019s infant child seeking to nuzzle his baby teeth into the lip of the cool beer can in his father\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n Or perhaps, like the rest of us, he was seeking a sip to celebrate a cleverly orchestrated comeback and expunge the foul taste of last year\u2019s loss at the same arena.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Ethan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7a0692a6d831166fc5e18e77db877620ddb48ae0.jpeg\")
Ethan Strange and Nathan Cleary were instrumental in NSW\u2019s fighting win in the Origin series opener.NRL Photos<\/p>\n![\"NSW](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ce4fb8952a00df3d336e02ba204611ddbfdd5c4d.jpeg\")
NSW were lifted by Ethan Strange\u2019s performance in his Origin debut.Getty Images<\/p>\n
unnecessary bone-headed decision from the fullback and as close as any player can come to losing a game for his side. Ponga is culpable.<\/p>\n
setting up the grandstand finish.<\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779938717_906_31f0abcdc32fb07932f9dc7ce051239660df8b9fba98c47013e162001002c939.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Roy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/29b8785009d0a7b2a6436d8d628ed2c6ae33d36d.png\")
Roy Masters<\/a> is a Sports Columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-699187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699187","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=699187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}