New South Wales put in a strong performance to avoid the clean sweep, winning 24-10 against Queensland in front of 75,342 fans at Stadium Australia on Wednesday night.
The Blues gave themselves some consolation, avoided the sweep in a positive performance. The left side of the Blues ran riot which saw debutant Bradman Best score twice and Cody Walker pulled the strings all night.
This game might have been a dead rubber but it started at a fast pace. Blues looked energised with the changes while Queensland aimed to play party pooper on the Blues home soil.
The visitors struck first on their first chance. They abosrbed some Blues attack then a kick from Cameron Munster saw it batted back to the returning David Fifita to touch down and make it 6-0.
The Blues sprung into action and their left side dominated. There was an early raid which saw Bradman Best offside but it gave an early warning to the Queensland defense.
New South Wales did hit back through their right side though. They stretched the ball on the edges before Brian To'o dived over in the corner then a conversion from Stephen Crichton was waved away.
Buoyed by that four-pointer, the Blues scored back-to-back tries. Josh Addo-Carr found some space on the left, kicked for himself and recovered to give the Blues the lead then Best rampaged onto a Walker short pass to make it 16-6.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow answered Addo-Carr's spectacular effort with one of his own. The centre who has had a wonderful series, in tight spaces, kicked for himself and beat To'o to the ball to score.
Blues extended their advantage to eight on half-time. Stephen Crichton took an intercept in a big game (where have I heard that before) which led to the whistle. He stepped up to sent the ball through for the 18-10 half-time score.
Both sides exchanged blows in the start of the second half. Queensland broke through with Murray Tualagi and Daly Cherry-Evans but weren't able to find the finish to get the game back within a score.
Blues thought they had extended their lead. A short drop out was contested, before it landed into the hands of Isaah Yeo, who scurried over. Bunker got involved and it was ruled a knock on and Yeo was offside.
They did find a four-pointer soon after. James Tedesco, who has had a down series for his standards, poked through the line, found Best who strode away for the score to make it 24-10.
Queensland had a pair of chances to get back into the contest. It came off two kicks, one was knocked on by Tabuai-Fidow then the second saw Valentine Holmes get an unfriendly bounce before it went dead.