James Tedesco didn’t realise how much he missed State of Origin and now the former Blues captain wants more.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recalled from a two-year exile for the series opener at Accor Stadium, the veteran fullback delivered another iconic Origin moment as he soared above Queensland’s Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Selwyn Cobbo with 90 seconds remaining to score the match winning try.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother Origin moment to remember,\u201d Tedesco told NRL.com. \u201cThat feeling, coming down with it, it\u2019s something I\u2019ll remember for a long, long time.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s great to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
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James Tedesco Try<\/p>\n
Tedesco’s emotional return to the Origin arena is set to become one of the defining stories of the 2026 series.<\/p>\n
In his 24th appearance for New South Wales, Tedesco didn\u2019t just return to the Blues side, he won the game.<\/p>\n
Trailing by four points inside the final two minutes, halfback Nathan Cleary launched a towering bomb, and the two-times Dally M Medallist rose above the pack, juggled the ball under pressure and planted it down in front of 79,186 fans.<\/p>\n
It was vintage Tedesco.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bombed one earlier, so I thought I had to make up for it somehow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been competing all year to get one of those and I haven\u2019t got one, so I\u2019m glad I somehow came down with this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tedesco has built a career on delivering in the big moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His famous series-winning try in the dying seconds of the 2019 series is memorialised with a giant poster in the gym at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence as inspiration to Blues players.<\/p>\n
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Blues etch their own miracle try into Origin folklore<\/p>\n
And after missing out on selection since Game 1 of the 2024 series, Wednesday night carried extra meaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just so proud,\u201d Tedesco said.<\/p>\n
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I didn\u2019t really miss it until I came back and realised how good this is.<\/p>\n
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“To be around the best players in the game, to run out at home in this atmosphere, in front of this crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really stoked to be back and just wanted to soak up every moment and enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the fairytale finish, Tedesco knows the job is far from over for NSW.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old admitted the Blues still have plenty to improve on heading into Game Two at the MCG on June 17, with memories of last year\u2019s series loss still fresh.<\/p>\n
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The frantic final minutes<\/p>\n
\u201cA few of the boys did this last year, won the first game and lost the last two,\u201d Tedesco said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a three-game series and you need to get up for the next one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we weren\u2019t at our best tonight, there\u2019s plenty of improvement in us and we have to be better for Game Two.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Tedesco didn’t realise how much he missed State of Origin and now the former Blues captain wants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-449110","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\/449110","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=449110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}