Queensland clinch State of Origin

Ben Hunt has scored a runaway try in the dying minutes as Queensland claimed the State of the Origin series in dramatic fashion with a famous 22-12 victory over New South Wales at Lang Park.

Ben Hunt helps Queensland to big win.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Hunt’s try in the 79th minute – after he plucked a Nathan Cleary chip kick out of the air and ran 70 metres – clinched the win for the Maroons in a thrilling encounter.

They were forced to use just 15 players for much of the match after losing Selwyn Cobbo and Lindsay Collins to concussion in the opening few minutes.

Billy Slater’s team was also without Cameron Munster and Murray Taulagi after they withdrew in the build-up to the match because of Covid-19, but no challenge was too large to overcome as they collected a 23rd series triumph.

The match got off to a brutal start, with three players failing head injury assessments following the opening defensive exchanges.

Blues second rower Cameron Murray was the first to leave the field after just a minute of play when he was concussed attempting to tackle Corey Oates, before Cobbo and Collins were also forced off with concussions.

As the two sides looked to settle into their patterns after the physically taxing beginning, it was the Maroons who crossed for the first try of the match when debutant Tom Dearden found Valentine Holmes with a brilliant flat ball in the 13th minute.

The Maroons led 6-0 after Holmes’s conversion, but the Blues levelled the score six minutes later when Jarome Luai scored and Cleary converted.

Just past the half-hour mark, the Blues took the lead when Api Koroisau scooted out of dummy half close to the Maroons’ line and found a steaming Jacob Saifiti – making his State of Origin debut – on the burst to score under the posts.

Cleary added the extras for a 12-6 lead but the Maroons replied with just seconds remaining in the first half when Kurt Capewell scored from a Harry Grant grubber into the in-goal area.

With the conversion unsuccessful, the Blues held a two-point lead going into the second half, which got underway in heated circumstances when a melee broke out following an altercation between the Maroons’ Dane Gagai and the Blues’ Matt Burton.

Gagai and Burton were sent to the sin-bin before returning to the field in the 52nd minute at a point of the match when both sides were beginning to show signs of fatigue.

It was the Maroons who lifted their effort midway through the half via a Kalyn Ponga try, his dazzling footwork too much for the Blues as they desperately defended their line.

Holmes’s conversion put the Maroons 16-12 head, before Hunt’s try in the shadows of full-time sealed an epic win for the home side.

-ABC