Debut stunner sparks awkward Moses dilemma; huge Daley call pays off<\/a><\/p>\nSaid coach Laurie Daley: \u201cI just get disappointed with the narrative that is driven (around Cleary). He\u2019s a champion and he\u2019s still got a lot of footy left to play. It was reminiscent of the (2023) grand final. He was phenomenal for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Origin is too brutal, too taxing, too cunning for any win not to be deserved. But this was the Blues\u2019 get-out-of-jail card. They did a Queensland on Queensland.<\/p>\n
It was almost inconceivable to see NSW winning the match until Maroons fullback Kalyn Ponga became just the seventh man in Origin history to be sent off for a shoulder charge on NSW winger Tolu Koula mid-way through the second half.<\/p>\n
At the time, the Maroons were leading 20-6.<\/p>\n
The Blues bumbled their way through the first hour, coming up with a litany of individual handling errors, from unlikely culprits such as Brian To\u2019o and Stephen Crichton. Daley didn\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry. He might have done both.<\/p>\n
The handling errors when getting up out of a tackle are the little details that matter in Origin, and on several fronts, NSW were lacking.<\/p>\n
Nathan Cleary during his Origin I masterclass.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Just before half-time, the Blues almost didn\u2019t get a scrum packed in time to allow Cleary an ambitious and ultimately unsuccessful punt at a two-point field goal. Haumole Olakau\u2019atu ran at Harry Grant\u2019s outside shoulder instead of inside one, robbing Ethan Strange of a debut try (he would grab one shortly after). <\/p>\n
When NSW were trying to chase down Queensland\u2019s lead inside the final 10 minutes, it took an eternity for a kicking tee to be found and shipped to Cleary for a simple conversion of his own try in front.<\/p>\n
Little details.<\/p>\n
But sometimes, when you have a player as good as Cleary, you overcome them.<\/p>\n
The most fascinating comments in the build-up to game one came from NSW\u2019s most successful coach, Phil Gould, who upon studying the team Daley had chosen, said there would be no way the Blues would be able to defend their way to victory if they had less than 50 per cent of the ball. <\/p>\n
Daley almost took it as a slight, and when asked on match eve how his team would win, didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cWe\u2019ll defend our way to victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teddy & Cleary seal Greatest comeback | 09:12<\/p>\n
Gould looked to be right, because under the strain of its first-half fumbles, the Blues couldn\u2019t stop the rot. But Ponga put his shoulder into it, the wheel turned, and NSW ended up finishing with 53 per cent of possession.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a nightmare in the first half and then it felt like a dream,\u201d Cleary said. \u201cThat\u2019s rugby league. That\u2019s why we love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daley will know better than most this series is far from done.<\/p>\n
His Blues team were so dominant at Suncorp Stadium in game one last year, but collapsed in the first half of game two in Perth under the weight of their own misdemeanours and Ashley Klein\u2019s whistle before being completely outpointed in the decider.<\/p>\n
Even if his team never really found their stride until they were up against 12 rather than 13, his controversial lightweight bench had an impact in Sydney.<\/p>\n
Contentious selections like hooker Blayke Brailey, outside back Casey McLean (who replaced a concussed Koula) and firebrand Victor Radley played their part. NSW\u2019s only big bopper on the pine, Jacob Saifiti, was unused.<\/p>\n
Lozball, smallball, whatever it was, just give Cleary the ball.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be the one with the feet moving, because Origin never stops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a nothing moment in a nothing-but-bad half for NSW, but it also said everything you need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-448517","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\/448517","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=448517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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