Blues restore pride with last minute win

v BYE

New South Wales produced some late heroics to win Origin III by 18-14 in front of 61,267 fans at ANZ Stadium. 

The Blues were dominant throughout but it seemed after Darius Boyd benefited from the bounce of the rugby league ball and gave Queensland the lead late-on it would be another night of big effort but no result. 

From the resulting kick-off though, the Blues swept across the field to give Blake Ferguson space to link with James Tedesco to go close. One tackle later, Michael Jennings had dived over to give NSW some consolation with a 18-14 victory in game three. 

The tempo was set early on, as the Blues dominated possession and the penalty count after they fell behind to a 5th minute Greg Inglis try. They were banked on the Queensland line but in the first half, could only produce one try. Dragons secondrower Tyson Frizell stormed onto a Paul Gallen offload to make it 6-4 NSW. 

New South Wales could have established a campsite in the Maroons half after Frizell's four-pointer. They were helped by the sin-bin of Cooper Cronk in the 31st minute but a dogged Queensland defense repelled them at all avenues to only be down two at the main break. 

For their effort the Blues did get a second, 120 seconds from the restart, from a loose ball James Maloney toed it through and Andrew Fifita, who had a busy night touched down to make it 12-4. 

It seemed the defense in the first half had exhausted the aging Queensland side, as the Blues started to make in-roads through their pacy backline but once again were too sideways in their execution. 

When Queensland received only their second penalty in the game they made sure to profit. Gavin Cooper linked with Cowboys teammate Johnathan Thurston to trcuk his way across and leave the champions within two. 

The fireworks were after the try was awarded though, Fifita got himself involved with the Queensland side and was duly binned for ten minutes. The momentum had swung back to the team in maroon. 

It seemed the clean sweep was on after 74 minutes of attrition, a wicked bounce of the ball left Josh Mansour marooned and Darius Boyd to cross for his 17th try in his origin career. 

The Blues had one more trick up their sleeve though, and sent captain Paul Gallen out a winner in a tough 18-14 victory. Gallen took his bow with a conversion that snuck inside the sticks to send the 61,267 fans delirious.