2008 Rugby League State of Origin series

Infobox_State_of_Origin_series
year = 2008


count = 13th
imagesize = 100%
caption =
winners = .
margin = 2-1
points = 84
attendance = 198787
top points scorer = (20 points)
top try scorer = (4 tries)The 2008 State of Origin series was the 27th in history. At its commencement New South Wales and Queensland had each won twelve series with two series drawn.

The Melbourne Storm's premiership-winning coach Craig Bellamy made his debut in charge of New South Wales and found himself coaching against a number of his in-form Melbourne players [ [http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/09/2054664.htm Bellamy Blues announcement] ] . New South Wales took a 1-0 series lead with a convincing victory in Game I on 21 May 2008. After some key personnel changes, Queensland then achieved a record 30-point margin to win Game II on 11 June 2008 to level, and on 2 July won Game III 16 - 10 to take the series 2-1 and edge one ahead in the cumulative series tally.

The series marked Mal Meninga's third as Queensland coach and also his third consecutive series victory. Jonathan Thurston was judged the player of the series. The 2008 series also set new nation-wide television audience records for State of Origin.

Game One

The New South Wales side came to Origin I well prepared by the NRL's number one coach, Craig Bellamy, who had the inside information on the six members of his Melbourne side who were playing for the Maroons. Queensland were missing their injured captain and playmaker Darren Lockyer but were spoilt for choice for fullbacks with Melbourne's Billy Slater and the Broncos' Karmichael Hunt in tremendous season form. Maroons selectors opted to experiment with Hunt at five-eighth.

rugbyleaguebox
bg = #eeeeee
team1 = New South Wales
team2 = Queensland
score = 18 - 10
report =
points1 = Anthony Quinn (8 - 2t) Brett Stewart (4 - 1t) Anthony Laffranchi (4 - 1t) Craig Fitzgibbon (2 -1g)
points2 = Brent Tate (4 - 1t) Israel Folau (4 - 1t) Johnathan Thurston (2 - 1g)
date = 21 May 2008
stadium = ANZ Stadium, Sydney
attendance = 67,620
referee= Tony Archer
manofmatch= Greg Bird

The Blues forwards ran at the Queensland playmakers and Cameron Smith and Hunt were forced to do a mountain of defence. Steady and deep kicks from Blues debutant Peter Wallace kept Slater returning from deep in his territory often without easy linkage to his wing supports.

Queensland took a long time to get out of first gear - Thurston's first kick of the night was low and travelled only 35 metres. The Blues however worked the ball through the hands with confidence and began to move it wide early. New South Wales played down their left hand side for the first two tries, both scored by debutante winger Anthony Quinn. One came through the hands with five-eighth Greg Bird, creating space via a cut out pass to Ryan Hoffman The other resulted from a well executed kick from Peter Wallace - a late call up to the side during the week following the withdrawal of Kurt Gidley.

Queensland scored late in an almost penalty and error free first-half and made a better showing of it after half-time with a few breaks and picking up on some errors made by New South Wales. But their efforts came to nothing in the face of an all round defensive effort from the Blues, including a number of try-saving and punishing tackles by try-scorer Quinn supported by his three-quarter teammate Matt Cooper.

Thurston lifted in the second-half and threatened with a number of well-paced grubber kicks in behind but he was marked closely by the man-of-the-match Greg Bird and the vigilant defence of Ryan Hoffman who also kept Folau and Inglis well contained. Slater showed touches of brilliance but at times was outshone by Mark Gasnier who was dangerous all night and had a hand in two Blues tries. Hunt defended heroically throughout but every big tackle he made sapped something from his attacking spark. Eventually the Maroons ran out of steam and another Blues debutant in Anthony Laffranchi crossed in the 68th minute, taking the score to 18-4. Again at the death of the second half Queensland picked up another late try out wide through debutant Folau.

Game Two

Queensland made ten personnel changes for Origin II: Boyd debuted as Winger replacing Tate; Tate moved to Centre replacing Hodges (suspended on a tackling charge in the regular round 11); Thurston moved to Five-eighth after Lockyer was ruled out unfit, having been initially named in the side; Prince was called into the side at Half-back, replacing Thurston; Thaiday moved to the interchange bench; Price back from injury as Prop replacing Webb (dropped); Hunt moved to fullback thus Slater replacing Marsh (dropped) on interchange; Myles swapped with Thaiday to second row; Harrison onto the interchange bench, replacing Lillyman (dropped). New South Wales on the other hand made only four player changes: Turner debuted as winger replacing Hayne (suspended on a tackling charge in the regular round 11); Fitzgibbon moved to starting prop, replacing Cross (injured in game I); Simpson was moved onto the interchange bench for Fitzgibbon; Gidley (who had been named for game I, but suffered an eye injury in the club round prior) replacing Hornby who moved to 18th Man.

rugbyleaguebox
bg = #eeeeee
team1 = Queensland
team2 = New South Wales
score = 30 - 0
report =
points1 = Johnathan Thurston (14 - 7g) Darius Boyd (8 - 2t) Ben Hannant (4 - 1t) Israel Folau (4 - 1t)
points2 =
date = 11 June 2008
stadium = Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
attendance = 52,476
referee= Tony Archer
manofmatch= Greg Inglis

Darius Boyd on debut scored Queensland's first two tries, and with two penalty goals kicked by Thurston Queensland held an 16-0 lead at half-time. Another penalty just after the break, then two further converted tries between the 65th and the 70th minute made it 30-0 to Queensland.

Greg Inglis answered his critics from game I and spoke after the match of "getting one back on Gaz" (referring to having been outshone in game I by Mark Gasnier) with a blistering performance setting up both tries for Boyd from long range beating Gasnier and embarrassing the defence of Blues debutante Steve Turner in the process. The Queensland forwards were consistently up fast in defence and flustered New South Wales. Blues halves Greg Bird and Peter Wallace seemed at times bereft of attacking ideas and whilst Wallace had a reasonable kicking game, the control demonstrated by the pair in game I was not to be seen.

As predicted the Blues attack was aimed at Scott Prince wherever possible but he was ably assisted by Brent Tate, defending alongside him. Tate made thirty-three tackles in the game and regularly featured in attacking returns from loose play. Queensland were strong across the park with Jonathan Thurston shining, Israel Folau showing his class and veterans Steve Price and Petero Civoniceva giving tireless service.

For New South Wales the only flawless performances were by captain Danny Buderus and fullback Brett Stewart who pulled off a number of solo try-saving tackles. Otherwise the tables were completely turned from game I and Blues had no answers for a Maroons outfit this time perfectly prepared by coach Meninga.Queensland had levelled the series with a 30-0 win - only the second time in history that New South Wales were held scoreless.

The national TV audience peaked at 2.49 million viewers which was a new record. [ [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23851936-7582,00.html State of Origin II beats own TV ratings record] June 12, 2008 ]

Game Three

Queensland made no changes to their lineup for the decider while New South Wales made seven: Hayne returned from suspension and replaced Turner on the Wing; Cross , back from injury replaced Simpson; Anasta and Pearce formed a new halves pairing replacing the injured Bird and Wallace; Monaghan replaced Gasnier out with a back injury; Fitzgibbon moved to the Second-row and Mason to Prop.

rugbyleaguebox
bg = #eeeeee
team1 = New South Wales
team2 = Queensland
score = 10-16
report = | points1 = Craig Fitzgibbon (6 - 3g) Matt Cooper (4 - 1t)
points2 = Israel Folau (8 - 2t) Jonathan Thurston (4 - 2g) Billy Slater(4 - 1t)
date = 2 July 2008
stadium = ANZ Stadium, Sydney
attendance = 78,751
referee= Tony Archer
manofmatch= Israel Folau

Following one-sided affairs in games I and II, the decider of 2008 proved a classic Origin encounter - a tight arm-wrestle, with emotion boiling over into a number of melees, showcasing gritty defence and some spectacular attack with the ultimate outcome determined by a flash of individual brilliance.

In starting, Danny Buderus beat two Blues standing records - Harragon's for consecutive matches and Fittler's for most games as captain. Much of the media build up focussed on the match being his state representative farewell, Mitchell Pearce's debut and marking Braith Anasta's return to Origin.

Craig Fitzgibbon kicked New South Wales to an early lead after they were awarded a penalty from a Petero Civonicevahigh shot in the opening torrid defence. Soon after, Israel Folau scored the first of his two tries, gifted when Blues winger Anthony Quinn misjudged an in-goal bomb and the ball fell neatly to Folau's grasp. Blues' utility Kurt Gidley had been shuffled at the last minute into the starting line-up over Brett Stewart (resulting in formal pre-match protest from Queensland), and the move appeared a masterstoke by coach Bellamy as darting runs by Gidley and Buderus in the early stages of the match had the Maroons back-pedalling.

The Queensland game plan seemed to falter after they lost half-back Scott Prince to a broken arm in the fifteenth minute. Their attacking momentum stalled and the Blues capitalised immediately with Matt Cooper taking advantage of Prince's absence from the line, reaching out between defenders to score. Fitzgibbon converted to keep New South Wales in front.

Johnathan Thurston however soon began to take control of the Queensand attack and at the 22-minute mark he kicked high and to the corner. Folau continued his wing dominance over club teammate Quinn with an extraordinary Aussie rules-style mark flowing into a one-handed clean put-down while horizontal and still falling. Taking a penalty earnt by Buderus from fast ruck play against tiring Maroon's forwards, Fitzgibbon kicked the Blues to a 10-8 half-time lead.

Soon after the break a thoughtless play by Paul Gallen, taking out Thurston after a kick saw Queensland get a penalty and draw level at 10-10. Queenslander Nate Myles was lucky not to be sent off following a nasty-looking spear tackle on Ben Cross that resulted in tempers flaring and another brief brawl. Myles was later suspended for 6 weeks.

With the cumulative series tally to that point at 12-12 and the cumulative match tally standing at 39 (Qld) to 38 (NSW), for the next 20 minutes the encounter sat at a 10-10 deadlock, yet again reflecting the extraordinary historical balance between the two sides. But then with twelve minutes remaining on the clock Thurston rose to the occasion. He dummied his way between Pearce and lumbering Blues forward Brett White and sped through before sending the ever-lurking Billy Slater away on the inside at blistering pace to score under the posts and turn the game. Thurston made no mistake with the resulting conversion from directly in front.

Queensland then withstood a barrage of attack from the Blues and benefitted from a controversial forward-pass call by referee Archer on Anasta near the Queensland line with 90 seconds on the clock. For the third straight year Queensland took the series, replicating "three-peats" achieved in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1987, 1988, 1989.

The national TV audience peaked at more than 2.5 million, breaking the record set in the last game. [ [http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=591188 Origin decider a TV record breaker] ]

2008 State Of Origin Ladder

¹ - Injury replacement (does not play).

Footnotes

External links

* [http://stats.rleague.com/rl/soo/game82.html State Of Origin - Game 1, 2008 at stats.rleague.com]
* [http://stats.rleague.com/rl/soo/game83.html State Of Origin - Game 2, 2008 at stats.rleague.com]
* [http://stats.rleague.com/rl/soo/game84.html State Of Origin - Game 3, 2008 at stats.rleague.com]
* [http://www.rleague.com/db/year/2008/state_of_origin/index.php 2008 State of Origin at rleague.com]

ee also

*National Rugby League season 2008