will be played under virtually unchanged rules from 2025<\/a>, with four players on the bench and no set re-starts.<\/p>\nTeam News<\/p>\n
Blues: Coach John Strange has selected 14 players from the team which claimed last year\u2019s Ampol Women\u2019s State of Origin series in his squad to face Queensland in the series opener. The new faces include debutant Tegan Berry, who has been named on the bench, and former Jillaroos prop Millie Elliott, who returns after having a baby. Sydney Roosters prop Rima Butler, who was named in the extended 20-player squad, is also yet to play Origin. One key positional shift sees Tiana Penitani Gray moves from the halves last year to second row. No changes for the Blues in Wednesday’s 24-hour update, with Quincy Dodd dropping out of the extended squad.<\/p>\n
Maroons:\u00a0Nathan Cross has altered his backline 24 hours out from kick-off, bringing Ivania Lolesio into the centres for her Origin debut. Shenae Ciesiolka shifts to the bench and Brianna Clark drops back to the reserves as a result. Destiny Mino-Sinapati dropped out of the squad.\u00a0With Ali Brigginshaw having retired from Origin and star halfback Tarryn Aiken unavailable due to an ACL injury, Cross has chosen young gun Chantay Kiria-Ratu to partner Lauren Brown in the halves. Kiwi prop Otesa Pule has been named on the interchange bench after the change to Origin eligibility rules enabled her to feature in the interstate game. Rising Gold Coast winger Phoenix-Raine Hippi has also been named to make her Origin debut on the wing.<\/p>\n
Stat Attack<\/p>\n
In their 2025 series win, the Blues outscored the Maroons 72-36.
\nThe Blues\u2019 line-up includes seven Sydney Roosters players.
\nThe Maroons line-up of 17 includes three uncapped State of Origin players.
\nThe Blues have played 122 Origin games compared to the Maroons\u2019 91.
\nThe Maroons have won both Origin matches at McDonald Jones Stadium.<\/p>\n
Stats supplied by David Middleton, League Information Services,\u00a0author of the\u00a0official annual of the NRL.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Westpac NSW Blues Women\u2019s team will be hoping to break their Newcastle hoodoo against the Harvey Norman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-403140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}