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New South Wales has crushed Queensland 38-18 to level the State of Origin series in front of 90,084 supporters at the MCG.
The Blues were almost flawless in the first half, flying out of the blocks to score six tries in the most dominant opening 40 minutes in Origin history.
Wingers Brian To'o and Zac Lomax had doubles and Liam Martin and Latrell Mitchell also crossed in the opening period for the Blues, who banished all memories of their under-manned defeat in Sydney in Game I.
Martin and Patrick Carrigan were both sent to the sin bin early in the second half, during which time Queensland scored two tries through Jeremiah Nanai and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who played through an AC joint injury that forced him from the field in the first half.
But as soon as both teams were back to 13 players each, the Blues struck again, debutant Dylan Edwards diving over in the right corner after another sumptuous pass from player of the match Mitchell Moses.
Murray Taulagi also crossed for the Maroons, but it was too little, too late for Queensland, who must lick their wounds ahead of a deciding Game III at Lang Park on July 17.
ABC Sport NRL expert Luke Lewis described the opening 40 minutes as "the perfect half of rugby league" from New South Wales.
It's hard to think of a way it could have been better.
The Blues enjoyed 68 per cent of possession, completed 21 out of 22 sets and scored six tries to nil to take a 34-0 lead to half-time — a State of Origin record.
The bare numbers were extraordinary — the Blues ran for 1,041 metres, had 24 tackle breaks and missed just two tackles of their own in the first half, compared to just 419 metres from the Maroons, who had 12 sets in total.
Phil Gould described it as "men against boys" on Channel 9, with former Maroons skipper Darren Lockyer admitting he was "in shock".
Liam Martin opened the scoring after a lovely right-foot step.(Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)
The Blues crossed first after a lovely step from Martin, having earned five repeat sets as the hard-running Blues forwards forced the Maroons back early.
The Blues made the most of more repeat sets after Tabuai-Fidow was dragged back into his in-goal by Stephen Crichton.
New South Wales was unrelenting — Payne Haas and Angus Crichton were both immense, and it was their powerful runs that led to the second try, Mitchell flicking the ball out the back of his hand to To'o, who dived over in the left corner to complete another fine set.
Lomax crossed for the Blues' third try by channelling the Australian Rules footballers who typically grace this ground by leaping over a static Taulagi in the right corner.
The flawlessness of the Blues was countered by uncharacteristic sloppiness by the Maroons, capped by the kick-off after that third Blues try was caught by Lomax with his foot on the sideline, handing the ball to the Blues on halfway.
After 25 minutes, the Maroons had missed 20 tackles to the Blues' one and, soon enough, were trailing 22-0 after some magical improvisation from Mitch Moses, who grubbered to the left side perfectly for To'o's second.
Brian To'o scored two of the Blues' six first-half tries at the MCG.(Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)
The Blues' highest score in a half of Origin football was 22 points — they surpassed that inside 26 minutes, and bettered it seven minutes before half-time when Mitchell finished off another sumptuous move.
The Maroons couldn't catch a trick: Tom Dearden lost the ball in the tackle, almost unforgivable with the pitiful amount of ball Queensland had in the contest, while Harry Grant split himself open by headbutting Reuben Cotter while attempting to tackle Spencer Leniu.
To add insult to injury, Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans was left incredulous when Martin escaped a sin bin for a lifting tackle on Cotter.
When Lomax crossed for the Blues' sixth try before half-time, the Blues looked absolutely unstoppable.
Zac Lomax helped the Blues keep the pressure on.(Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
The Maroons had their first tackle in the Blues' 20m area five minutes into the second half. The Blues had already had 33 by that time.
Still nothing seemed to go the Maroons' way — a high shot from Mitchell was placed on report instead of resulting in a sin bin, a late shot on Cherry-Evans ignored, and a pull back on Reece Walsh was also missed.
Tempers were bound to fray. It took Stephen Crichton working the face of Cherry-Evans to spark the first.
Tempers boiled over in the second half.(Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)
It took a monstrous hit on Jaydn Su'A — and the subsequent extras from Martin — that sparked a second all-in that saw Martin and Carrigan both sent to the bin.
With the two sides at 12 men each, Queensland managed to put some plays together and scored through Nanai and Tabuai-Fidow.
But Edwards, denied his debut in Game I through injury, scored his first try in Blue, played in by a magical Moses pass.
Taulagi added another consolation score late on, but long before that the Maroons knew they were well beaten and could only focus on a Game III decider back home in Brisbane.
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.
We will sign off there
For the New South Wales supporters out there, enjoy your night, have an extra slice of pizza tomorrow. Live it up. The second half takes nothing away from that first 40 minutes, which was as close to perfect as a rugby league team can be.
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For you Queenslanders … the Maroons have a good record in Lang Park deciders.
But you don't have to wait three weeks for a shot at a decider! We'll be back tomorrow night for the Women's State of Origin decider in Townsville as the Sky Blues try to wrest back the shield from the Maroons in their decider.
We'll see you then!
Five quick hits from Origin II
If you want to relive a few of the highlights from a wild night in Melbourne, here you go.
Where the match was won
It came down to the Blues' power in contact.
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NSW broke 43 tackles to Queensland's 23, and made 580 post-contact metres, 150 more than the Maroons.
Most of that impact came from the back five:
Dylan Edwards - 7 tackle breaks, 53 PC metres
Brian To'o - 5 and 50
Latrell Mitchell - 1 and 21
Stephen Crichton - 2 and 19
Zac Lomax - 6 and 27
That just gets their sets off to such a hot start and saves their forwards' legs. Speaking of which, Payne Haas had probably his best game in blue, with his 193 run metres second only to Dylan Edwards's 200. His 80 post-contact metres and four offloads were both the best in the game.
Angus Crichton was also immense outside Jarome Luai with 171 metres, 77 of them after contact.
For comparison, no-one for Queensland ran for more than 155 metres, and Pat Carrigan (74) was the only player with more than 44 post-contact metres.
NSW won basically every ruck and it made them impossible to stop.
Michael Maguire and Jake Trbojevic are in the hot seat now
NSW coach Michael Maguire is happy to see his team get a chance to show what they can do with a full complement on the park.
"What you saw in the first half is what I believe this group is capable of."
Maguire is asked about NSW's discipline in the second half and says "there were a few interesting calls there" from the referee, but doesn't elaborate. Although he does circle back to say Liam Martin's sin-binning was "interesting".
Maguire is backing his team to be the first NSW side in 19 years to win a decider at Lang Park.
"It can be done. If this group gets together like they have in this game, there's no reason why things can't happen."
Even the most one-eyed Queenslander has to love Jake Trbojevic. He just loves playing footy.
"To get to play at the MCG is really special and the way we went about it. Everyone was at their best throughout the whole week. It was just nice, it was really nice."
Billy Slater and Daly Cherry-Evans are breaking down that debacle
Queensland coach Billy Slater says they were stuck in mud after the Blues got on top early.
"It just felt like we were running uphill and we couldn't stop the momentum. Part of that's on us.
"I thought the start was OK. The first eight or nine minutes … then NSW got a snowball of possession. They got a try and it went downhill from there.
"It's a hard game to play, it's even harder when you're tired."
And on the second-half rebound…
"I thought the second half was quite good. We went after our footy a bit more we were more patient, we weren't looking for shortcuts.
"It's a real positive that the team pulled themselves together."
Daly Cherry-Evans says this game felt more physical than most.
"Origin's pretty physical. This one probably felt more physical because of the run of momentum they had."
"We just lost. We need to cop it on the chin and move on."
The Queensland skipper won't be drawn into a conversation about how the game was refereed…
"It's Origin footy. The refs are out there doing their best. We just trust they're doing their best job. And I'm sure they did their best job tonight. That's just footy."
What the Blues are saying
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NSW enforcer Liam Martin acknowledges some ill-discipline from him cost his team in the second half, but reserves praise for his halfback Mitchell Moses on ABC Sport.
"He's really stepped up. I absolutely love playing beside him. He puts his body on the line and I love that."
Debutant Connor Watson says it's the toughest 15-minute game he's ever played.
"I don't know if I've ever gassed so quickly. All the adrenaline had worn off by then.
"That first half was as good a half of football as I've ever seen."
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Jake Trbojevic played 34 minutes tonight — the first 26, then the last eight. He says he's warming into the NSW captaincy and the team has got around him this week.
"The first camp I was a bit uncomfortable, didn't know if I deserved it."
Dylan Edwards has won premierships and played for Australia, but this Origin debut, complete with a late try, was a special moment for one of the hardest workers in the game.
"It definitely goes up another level. You can feel that."
In just his second game back from injury, Cameron Murray was typically influential through the middle of the field.
"I just felt rested. Everything kind of fell back into place. I'm just really grateful for how it's all panned out the past couple weeks."
Coach Michael Maguire has spoken to John Gibbs on the field.
"Really proud of our players the way they stuck together."
FULL-TIME: NSW wins Origin II 38-18
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That was an absolute thrashing by the Blues, even acknowledging Queensland winning the second half 18-4.
The first half was a complete demolition and frankly I don't know how the Maroons bounced back from it. You'd have to say NSW took its foot off the pedal after leading 34-0 at half-time.
The Blues looked too powerful, too strong, too fast, and phenomenally in sync and slick in attack for most of the match. Mitchell Moses and Jarome Luai played the games of their lives, but you can't really say any NSW player was poor tonight.
Credit to the Maroons for finally firing a couple of shots, but proud Queenslander Matthew Elliott isn't putting much weight in that.
"I don't think Queensland can take too many positives from this," he says on ABC Sport.
77' Reece Walsh is struggling
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He's smashed by Mitchell Moses as he looks to pass to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who went inside too early I think.
Walsh is in the hands of the trainers and is nowhere to be seen as Jarome Luai boots it long.
Hopefully just had the wind knocked out of him.
73' Here come the Blues again, as their captain finally returns
The Maroons battle to get over their 30m line and boot long(ish) then concede a penalty as Pat Carrigan hits Zac Lomax high.
Meanwhile, NSW captain Jake Trbojevic finally comes back on and will once again play less than half the game.
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His selection as captain remains baffling. If he's not going to play when they're getting thumped and not going to play when they're doing the thumping, why is he there?
70' Poor Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow
The Maroons centre is having a whale of a second half considering he's clearly got a clipped right wing.
It cops another whack as Reece Walsh is spooked by Stephen Crichton's rushing defence, he forces a pass, Hammer knocks on and Cameron Murray smashes him into the ground.
I guarantee Tabuai-Fidow misses a few weeks after this game.
Murray Taulagi goes over as the Maroons keep trying to make the score respectable
Daly Cherry-Evans's hustle earns Queensland an extra set as Angus Crichton gets a touch on Jeremiah Nanai's last-tackle offload. They spin it wide and Murray Taulagi goes over after the double pump from DCE, which almost causes an obstruction by Kurt Capewell, but the bunker clears it.
67' Liam Martin is penalised again
He smacks Daly Cherry-Evans high and late after an attempted 40/20 and Martin goes on report as the penalty is blown down field.
Lucky not to be sin-binned for a second time. He would be in clubland.
66' Mitchell monsters Walsh
Reece Walsh attacks a Jarome Luai grubber and he goes upfield threatening and looking for support, but there's none there and Latrell Mitchell picks him up and throws him to the turf.
64' The Maroons go out on the full again off the kick-off
Admirable that the Maroons are trying still, but that's terrible execution on the attempted short kick-off.
Connor Watson comes on for his first Origin minutes.
The Blues get back on track and it's the delayed debutant Dylan Edwards
The ball comes out to the right from a jinking run by Jarome Luai, and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow flies up on Stephen Crichton, but the ball goes out the back to Dylan Edwards and he has a runway to the tryline.
The Maroons were shot to bits out there and Mitch Moses summed it up perfectly.
61' Reuben Cotter lucky to stay on the park
The Maroons try a right-side sneak and Reece Walsh and Val Holmes can't connect. He gets smashed by Angus Crichton as he knocks on, and Reuben Cotter sprints in from at least 20 metres away to defend his club teammate.
NSW gets the penalty. Silly play from Cotter.
Another long-range try for Queensland!
A slick blindside play from Queensland — Grant to Dearden to Hammer to Taulagi, who breaks down the left and kicks back in-field as he so often does — and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow has all the time in the world to slow down, sum up the bounce, gather, and touch down.
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Where was this in the first 40 minutes?
56' Another penalty for the Maroons
Reece Robson is called for a flop.
Again, so much of this was happening in the first half and now it feels like the referee is trying to play catch-up.
The Maroons finally get on the board
After a slow play-the-ball from Harry Grant, claiming a crusher tackle from Spencer Leniu, the Maroons spin it right and Jeremiah Nanai gets one-on-one against Jarome Luai and brushes him to touch down.
That's a great ball from Daly Cherry-Evans and an excellent line from Nanai.
"Daly Cherry-Evans in the Queensland spine is the only one who looks like a threat," Matthew Elliott says on ABC Sport.
52' Another late shot on Reece Walsh
The Maroons try to go down the left and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow is threatening even with a bung shoulder.
Stephen Crichton is penalised for a late shot on Reece Walsh. That's not necessarily worth a penalty, but the way this game has escalated, Klein is now doing damage control to try to clean things up and calm it down.
Xavier Coates gets over the line but he's held up and Daly Cherry-Evans follows up with a grubber into the in-goal and gets another set.
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