Queensland have avoided the unwanted whitewash as they pulled out a late 18-14 win over the New South Wales Blues in a scrappy contest in Newcastle.
Both New South Wales and Queensland had opening claims for points denied by the bunker, the Blues were denied when Jaime Chapman was bundled into touch before getting the ball to the ground. Queensland though were initially awarded their try by Belinda Sharpe before the bunker stepped in when the desperation from Sienna Lofipo wasn't enough when her fingers hit the dead ball line when trying to ground the ball.
The Maroons thoughdid opening the scoring inside the opening ten minutes when Makenzie Weale barged over with pure strength to go through some soft defence. Lauren Brown converted to give the visitors a 6-0 lead.
A moment that both New South Wales and Isabelle Kelly in particular would want to forget will go down as one of the biggest brain fades when the NSW Captain went through untouched to score, or at least everyone thought until the bunker stepped in to show Kelly had not actually put ball to turf to ground it. The Blues got a reprieve minutes later when a Maroons error gave them the ball and Jess Sergis scored definitely getting the ball to the ground.
New South Wales took the lead inside the final ten minutes of the first half when Jesse Southwell pulled out one of the great origin passes to find the chest of Jayme Fressard to score and without the Southwell conversion, NSW only lead 8-6 at the break.
The game turned into a bit of a scrap, but it was Jocelyn Kelleher who added a bit of spark when she saw Ali Brigginshaw overcommit in defence and Kelleher went from dummy half through a yawning gap to score. Southwell converted to give the Blues a 14-6 lead.
The momentum swung back to the Queenslanders after a forward pass out of dummy half from Keeley Davis gave Queensland field position and Romy Teitzel took advantage and scored. The perfect kicking game from Lauren Brown put the Maroons within two.
Momentum then looked liked it flipped back to the Blues off the boot of Jesse Southwell but errors from NSW put themselves under pressure and inside the final five minutes Chelsea Lenarduzzi got her way over. Brown's third conversion gave the Maroons an 18-14 lead.
A last minute raid from the Blues wasn't good enough and the visitors took the 18-14 victory.