Battling Blues draw first blood
May 21, 2008

New South Wales unveiled their own batch of dynasty busters at ANZ Stadium with the sky-blue rookie brigade making a mockery of Origin nerves to lead the Blues to an 18-10 victory over Queensland in the series opener.

New boys Peter Wallace, Anthony Laffranchi and two-try hero Anthony Quinn were all brilliant as they consigned the Maroons to their 11th loss in 13 appearances at the Olympic venue and put them on the back foot in their search for a hat-trick of series wins.

Only given a start after Kurt Gidley was ruled out with injury, young Brisbane halfback Wallace starred, his poise and control early in the game breaking the back of the Maroons.

Having spent the week working with former NSW maestro Andrew Johns, Wallace terrorised fullback Billy Slater with a precise kicking game which had the Maroons raking the ball out of their own half for much of the match.

He also showed a deft touch to find winger Anthony Quinn with a chip kick to give the Melbourne flyer two tries inside his first 18 minutes of Origin football.

"Unbelievable, it was just a dream come true," Wallace said.

"Hopefully it gets me another game, it's the best I've ever felt.

"It was a pretty big week, there was a fair bit of hype about it, I just tried to block it all out.

"I learnt so much in just a week, it's stuff I'll take away for the rest of my career, it was awesome."

While all the pre-match focus centred on how the Blues could contain the star-studded Queensland backline, it was the home side's speed men who were asking all the early questions.

Quinn gave the Blues a 4-0 lead after as many minutes as the ball went through the hands, Brett Stewart showing tremendous finger-tip control to reel in a Ryan Hoffman offload before finding his unmarked winger.

Queensland, who were burdened with the rarely carried favouritism tag, seemed more intent on dishing out defensive punishment than doing damage on the scoreboard, particularly through Broncos duo Karmichael Hunt and Justin Hodges.

But Hunt proved he was no Darren Lockyer as he struggled to get the Maroons backs firing and it appears they will be left with little choice but to bring in in-form Gold Coast playmaker Scott Prince for game two should Lockyer's knee not come good.

Laffranchi wasted little time in making an impact off the bench with his offload sparking Stewart's 35th minute try and it seemed the Blues would take a comfortable 14-0 lead to the break.

But Wallace's one error let the Maroons back into the game when his kick sailed out on the full just his side of halfway.

From there Queensland earned a repeat set before Brent Tate touched down on a Johnathan Thurston grubber as the halftime siren sounded.

It was nearly a repeat of the first half with the Blues making a bright start to the second half, Mark Gasnier cut short metres from the line by a Dallas Johnson try-saver.

It was certainly a much better effort than what Johnson came up with late in the contest, not for the first time the Storm lock taken from the field in a groggy state after getting his head in the wrong position.

The Blues made sure of the win with Laffranchi backing up a Gasnier bust 12 minutes from time, the Queensland side showing the never-say-die spirit they're renowned for as debutant Israel Folau crossed in the dying stages to make the final margin just eight points.

Cronulla utility Greg Bird was named man of the match and enjoyed his partnership with Wallace.

"I really enjoyed playing outside him (wallace) and he's a cool-headed character and he took everything in his stride throughout the week and that paid in the game, he had a blinder," he said.

"I enjoy the big stages. It was good fun out there."