Thread: State of Origin 25/05/11

classic; have learned not to trust the Astro SuperSports website as far as programme scheduling goes; checked 'just in case' the advertised golf wasn't being played.
It isn't.
Someone has decided to show a football game Sweden v Finland on A S S 1, it is advertised as being shown on on A S S 3.

A S S the lot of them.

edit. Bastards - during a break in the football just ran an advert for SoO 'now showing on A S S 2

Queenslander

Ouch ..........

Suncorp

Wednesday July 6

see ya there

Well good- I wuz wrong.

Pretty good analysis here.


Resilient Blues draw level

By James Maasdorp
Updated 19 minutes ago
PreviousNextSlideshow: Photo 1 of 5
Blue celebrations ... New South Wales goes wild as Anthony Minichiello seals victory. (Getty Images: Ryan Pierse)

• Audio: State of Origin II Highlights (Grandstand)
• Audio: Interview: Paul Gallen (Grandstand)
• Audio: Interview: Jamie Soward (Grandstand)
• Audio: Interview: Luke Lewis (Grandstand)
• Map: Sydney 2000

New South Wales has hassled and harried its way to an Origin series-levelling 18-8 win at Sydney's Olympic stadium on the back of a stunning performance from skipper Paul Gallen.
A stirling effort from the Blues' mobile forward pack, led by the inspirational Gallen and a fired-up Michael Ennis, shut down the Maroons' stars with relentless energy, allowing the Blues to assert total dominance over the second half.
The result squared the series at 1-1 with the deciding Game III at Lang Park in Brisbane becoming increasingly difficult to call.
The win was also vindication for coach Ricky Stuart, whose selection gambles of putting Anthony Minichiello at full-back - with Jarryd Hayne on the wing - and handing an Origin debut to Will Hopoate, ultimately paid off in a performance bursting with verve and incision.
A brilliant try from Hopoate gave the Blues a four-point lead they never relinquished, the rookie centre putting in a remarkable showing for his first Origin appearance after only 15 NRL appearances.
Utility Kurt Gidley offloaded to the overlapping Mitchell Pearce, who looped a pass left to Hopoate, with the young winger showing great control and reach to lunge and touch down before at the corner flag.
Minichiello then secured the win on 77 minutes after brilliant work from five-eighth Jamie Soward, who put on a step from a scrum and offloaded to the Blues full-back for an incisive try to send the partisan 81,695-strong crowd into delirium.
Soward's jilting run capped off a stellar performance in the second stanza, overcoming his first-half nerves to put in a polished kicking display to put luminaries Darren Lockyer, Billy Slater and Johnathan Thurston under constant pressure.
Man-of-the-match Gallen, who played the full 80 minutes for a mammoth 234 metres from 28 hit-ups with 32 tackles, lauded his side for making their mark on the pitch.
"It was a tough game, they're a quality side and all we've done is kept the series alive. We've got one game to go and that's the one that's going to matter," he told Grandstand.
"We were positive in Game One and Two, preparation was awesome but as we found out in Game One preparation isn't everything, you've got to do it on the field.
"We've done it now, we've kept the series alive so we've got to go out there and make it count."
Soward paid tribute to coach Stuart, saying the coach's passion had clearly rubbed off on the players.
"Especially after losing Game One the way we did, it was important for us to hold serve here and we did," he said.
"He's an emotional person, a passionate person about what he does, that's rubbed off on us.
"You saw tonight, they made a break there and Lukey Lewis comes and cleans him up.
"Whether we would have had that many players in the picture in the past was an issue for us, so we made a conscious effort."
Kicking duel
The pre-game hype surrounded the kicking duel between the Thurston-Lockyer-Cameron Smith triumvirate and Blues new boy Soward, and it looked like Soward had buckled under the pressure early on.
His first efforts looked skittish in front of the Homebush crowd, raking them unconvincingly as he proceeded to find full-back Slater repeatedly on the full.
But Soward's fortunes were reversed for the better in the second half with the forwards affording him better protection, the Dragons five-eighth finding his angles and distance to put Jharal Yow Yeh and Slater in trouble.
Queensland stalwarts Sam Thaiday and Greg Inglis were also under the cosh throughout as Gallen, Luke Lewis and Beau Scott conjured up all their energy and desperation to cover their forward runs.
Thaiday in particular looked unsettled by the Blues' attentions as New South Wales refused to simply hold on to its four point lead, relentlessly hunting a final try to put the game to bed.
But the Maroons nearly conjured up some magic through Lockyer, who found acres of space opening up in front of him, but chose to hand off to Cooper Cronk rather than the left wing, allowing a bloodied Lewis to put in a match-saving tackle on Cronk.
Queensland had opened the scoring as early as three minutes in with Thurston's penalty before Smith slithered through for the opening try.
A penalty against Tim Mannah allowed Thurston to slot the goal in before Soward missed the chance to level the scores with a 37-metre penalty which hit the upright.
Then on 24 minutes, Smith picked up the ball 10 metres out and spotted a gap between Greg Bird and Trent Merrin, barging over to score adjacent to the posts.
But the Blues brought the scores back to within two points just four minutes later through Lewis, who had just come off the bench and timed his run to perfection to catch Pearce's high ball, beating Billy Slater and a flat-footed Yow Yeh to open his Origin try account.
Blues: 18 (L Lewis, W Hopoate, A Minichiello tries; J Soward 3 cons)
Maroons: 8 (C Smith try; J Thurston con, pen)






http://abc.com.au/news/stories/2011/...section=justin

Good game 18-8 the blues toughed it out, paul gallen had a blinder played the entire 80mins on to lang park in 3 weeks look out qld.


GO THE BLUES

Have to mention this young bloke Will Hopoate, a try on debut he's taking the next two years off to go on a mormon mission he's a good kid good luck to him.

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

Originally Posted by bobo746

Yeah mate he had white line fever but a great player for manly nsw and australia.

Les Boyd's best playing days were with Western Suburbs before he sold out and went to Manly.

How the Blues need a hard man like him at the moment.

Les Boyd's finest achievements were in turning round the wires from bridesmaids to premiership play off winners. icon.

Here's another aussie guy you might guess,

Wires front row fans legend didnt make it with a couple of aussie teams.

Mike Gregory ?????

I watched the game with Fondles and his mates and thoroughly enjoyed the game.

Whilst the score-line indicated a pretty easy win for the Blues it was a very close battle and some of the hits were terrifying.

Cannot wait for the decider.

Originally Posted by bobo746

Mike Gregory ?????

Not Mike Gregory, RIP, but he was top man.
The road outside the haliwell Jones stadium is named Mike Gregory way, after him.

No this guy was one hard aussie, one of his clubs was the sharks, and ..he married the daughter of the wires chairman

when you said the sharks i was thinking maybe one of the sorensen brothers but they were kiwis you got me on this.

6 appearances for Penrith Panthers, 1 try, also played for Fulham and bradford northern.

And also scored 2 match winning tries in a lancashire cup final at Knowsley Road.

^ In fairness, in the 80's just about any NRL player could head to the UK and do well in the rugby league there. After the whitewash of the 1982 'Invincibles' tour, a lot more Oz coaching staff and players (mostly in the twilight of their careers) started to be enticed to the UK league to improve their game, which had fallen streets behind Australia.

True.
Most folk would know the uk players to make it down under
The guys I have highlighted, bevan, boyd, jacko are aussies who have made real solid contributions to the uk game, becoming legends at wires in doing so, but who might not be household names down under.

Originally Posted by LooseBowels

Most folk would know the uk players to make it down under

We were fortunate to get two of the best- 'chariots' Offiah & Ellery Hanley.

A pair of twats if ever there was

^ I remember when Tommy Bishop and Cliff Watson joined the Cronulla sharks and almost won the premiership for them.

Probably the toughest grand final ever and they were only beaten by a bloke called Bob Fulton.

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

beaten by a bloke called Bob Fulton.

A manly legend mate.

Is the bloke called Nev Hornery?

^^ Bob Fulton, now there's another aussie became a wires legend, born in warrington I believe.
I might have put him up next to quiz you, but not now.

^ Not Nev Hornery, its Bob Jackson, what an unsung hero he was, carried the pack.

Johnathan Thurston found not guilty of contrary conduct at NRL judiciary and free to play Origin III
Johnathan Thurston found not guilty of contrary conduct at NRL judiciary and free to play Origin 111 North Queensland Cowboys co-captain Johnathan Thurston is free to play in the State of Origin decider after being found not guilty of making contact with a referee by the NRL judiciary.