Queensland will cry blue murder at a couple of contentious calls but history will speak only of New South Wales delivering one of the all-time great Origin boilovers on Wednesday night. Despite being outplayed in Sydney and smashed in Melbourne, the Blues did the unthinkable, silencing Suncorp Stadium with a 12-30 victory to seal the Origin shield.
Under siege for weeks, with their coach Laurie Daley pilloried in all sections of the media, NSW were magnificent, scoring five tries to emphatically silence the critics. The hero was Nathan Cleary, who scored two tries and kicked five goals from five to win the Wally Lewis Medal as Man of the series and finally “own” the Origin arena.
