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Message: [QUOTE="Super Freak, post: 2632374, member: 8536"] [B]Best Origin Finishes 1. Game 1, 1994 - Mark Coyne's miracle try[/B] Behind 4-12 after struggling to keep pace with the Blues all night at the SFS, Queensland clung to a glimmer of hope when winger Willie Carne finished off a hot-potato try with five minutes to go, reducing the deficit to two points. The underdogs then concocted arguably the greatest match-winning try in the code's history in the dying stages. Starting on their own 40-metre line, the Maroons swept the ball from one sideline to the other and back again, passing it through 10 sets of hands before replacement back Mark Coyne stepped the NSW cover defence and reached out to score in the corner. Queensland had escaped with a 16-12 victory for the ages, one sure to haunt Blues players and supporters for eternity. [B]2. Game 3, 2002 - Carlaw's charge[/B] After video referee had mystifyingly denied Queensland fullback Darren Lockyer a series-sealing touchdown, NSW snatched an 18-14 lead with five minutes of the 2002 decider to go courtesy of a Jason Moodie try. But as the clock ticked over into the 80th minute, veteran halfback Allan Langer - playing his 34th and final Origin match - shifted the ball to hard-running backrower Dane Carlaw on the Blues' 40-metre line. Carlaw fended off Moodie and strode into open territory before brushing off fullback Brett Hodgson to plunge over for a dramatic try out wide, stunning the Sydney crowd. Lote Tuqiri's missed conversion after the bell was academic - as the current holders Queensland retained the shield with the 18-all draw. [B]3. Game 1, 1998 - Kevvie's big gamble[/B] Queensland trailed by five points with less than two minutes of the '98 series opener remaining when, coming off their own line, Maroons five-eighth Kevin Walters produced one of the great all-or-nothing plays, booting the ball downfield. Ben Ikin won a desperate chase to the ball on halfway, and Queensland worked the ball into NSW's quarter over the next two rucks. A slick interchange of short passing stretched the Blues and saw Walters send debutant Tonie Carroll over near the posts with 45 seconds on the clock. Another first-gamer, fullback Darren Lockyer, slotted the pressure conversion after the siren to clinch an extraordinary 24-23 SFS triumph. The loss brought back harrowing memories for the seven NSW players who had endured a last-minute loss at the same venue in the corresponding match four years earlier. [B]4. Game 1, 1987 - McGaw's mad scramble[/B] NSW debutant Mark McGaw scored the match-winning try after a crazy sequence inside the final 90 seconds of the '87 series opener at Lang Park. With the scores locked 16-all, Blues halves Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny combined to create an overlap on Queensland's 40-metre line. Kenny linked with Andrew Ettingshausen, who put clubmate McGaw away down the sideline. McGaw's return pass to 'ET' was desperately knocked down by Tonie Currie before the ball ricocheted off Peter Jackson's boot back into the in-goal. McGaw and Jackson grappled in a frantic chase, and the Blues centre planted his hand on the ball just inside the dead-ball line. Referee Mick Stone pointed to the spot, to the disbelief of the Maroons players - but replays showed he had made the correct call and NSW went one-up. [B]5. Game 2, 1991 - O'Connor's goal of a lifetime[/B] Queensland led 12-8 near the end of the explosive second Origin clash of 1991, played in a Sydney downpour. But NSW trudged into the Maroons' quarter on the back of a series of daring offloads before Ricky Stuart's long speculative pass found centre Mark McGaw, who angled between three defenders to slide over in the corner. Michael O'Connor, who had missed a conversion from a similar position to draw the series opener and was dropped before injuries gave him a reprieve, curled the conversion through from the right touchline to edge the Blues in front with two and a half minutes remaining. Seldom remembered, however, are the frantic final stages after NSW fumbled the kick-off. Des Hasler narrowly beat Willie Carne to a Langer kick in the Blue' in-goal, while NSW was forced to rebuff more pressure after the subsequent line dropout with 50 seconds left. The home side hung on for a dramatic 14-12 win to level the series. [B]6. Game 1, 2006 - Finch's match-winner[/B] An 11th-hour, fourth-choice inclusion as NSW halfback for the 2006 series opener, Brett Finch would prove the match-winner in the dying stages. Queensland had fought back from a 0-14 deficit to level at 16-all after Johnathan Thurston's 77th-minute sideline conversion of Steve Bell's try. But Finch stepped up with 90 seconds on the clock and drilled a 35-metre field goal down the middle, thereby becoming an unlikely Origin hero with the No.20 on his back. [B]7. Game 2, 1993 - Big Mal's bad decision[/B] One of the finest Origin matches on record finished with one of the great missed opportunities. NSW led 16-12 inside the final 90 seconds of a topsy-turvy SFS encounter when the Maroons desperately began to fling the ball around 10 metres out from their own line. Skipper Mal Meninga put lock Bob Lindner into space on the flank and backed up to take a return offload before speeding away from the Blues forwards Paul Sironen and Glenn Lazarus, and bumping off fullback Tim Brasher on halfway. Meninga charged down the right-hand sideline and only had the cover defence of Laurie Daley to beat, but he propped and passed to cumbersome forward Mark Hohn instead of taking the NSW captain on, and the move broke down. The Blues' heart-stopping win sealed a second straight series triumph. [B]8. Game 2, 1992 - Alfie's deadlock-breaker[/B] A try to Queensland's debutant lock Billy Moore and two penalty goals to NSW winger Rod Wishart was the sum total of the scoring in the first 78 minutes on a rainy night at Lang Park in '92. However, after a Queensland scrum win, diminutive halfback Allan Langer broke the deadlock with a little over 60 seconds to go when he drifted behind a screen and snapped a field goal from just inside the Blues' 20-metre line. The Maroons claimed the Blues' desperate short kick-off and squared the series via the 5-4 result. [B]9. Game 1, 2005 - Bowen's golden point intercept[/B] A phenomenal series opener at Suncorp saw Queensland storm out to a 19-0 lead before NSW scored four unanswered second-half tries to snatch a one-point advantage. The Maroons' debutant halfback Johnathan Thurston forced the match into golden point with a wobbly field goal from close range just over two minutes from fulltime. In the fourth minute of extra-time, Blues No.7 Brett Kimmorley sealed his place in intercept infamy when he fired a cut-out pass in the direction of his centre Matt Cooper. The ball was plucked out of the air by Maroons interchange Matt Bowen, who raced 40 metres for the match-winning try. [B]10. Game 1, 2004 - Timmins' towering field goal[/B] History was made when the tense Sydney series opener in 2004 became the first Origin match to go into golden point after the scores were locked at 8-all at fulltime. The match-winning play came from an unlikely source, with makeshift five-eighth Shaun Timmins hammering over a magnificent 37-metre field goal in the third minute of added time. [/QUOTE]

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