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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2592464, member: 1899"] [B]State of Origin 1981[/B] [B]Queensland 22[/B] (Backer, Lewis, Close, Meninga (penalty try) tries; Meninga 5/7 goals) defeated [B]New South Wales 15[/B] (Grothe 2, Cronin tries; Cronin 3/3 goals) Topsy turvey game. NSW held a 15-0 lead early after a wave of tries but a lack of concentrated gave Queensland the opportunity to hit back which they did through Backer down the left hand touchline. From there, Queensland always looked like the better team but it took them until the dying minutes for them to take the lead as Ray Price struck Phelan with an obvious head-butt to gift Queensland a 2 point lead, which later blew out to 7 following a penalty try to Queensland. I'd rate this as better than the inaugural match. I thought there were more highlights, pretty much most of them involving Grothe in some capacity and I think these memories hold up better than the other game. I mean, we still see replays of Choppy backhanding Grothe so he can get a hold of the ball. The Grothe try was pretty special too, although I think Backer may have just forced one of his feet into touch. [B]BP Man of the Match:[/B] Wally Lewis. Actually won the Channel 7 MotM but official honours went to Choppy who was certainly in the conversation but I think Wally was more instrumental for the Maroons. I thought Wally's Origin debut showed plenty of promise and this really delivered on it, a real captain's knock. [B]Debuts:[/B] Mitch Brennan, Ross Henrick, Chris Phelan, Paul McCabe, Greg Conescu, Paul Khan, Norman Carr, Mark Murray (Queensland) Phil Sigsworth, Terry Fahey, Eric Grothe, Terry Lamb, Peter Sterling, Ray Price, Les Boyd, Peter Tunks (New South Wales) [B]Coach:[/B] Arthur Beetson [B]One Game Wonders: [/B]Barry Jensen, Steve Bowden, Garry Dowling, Ron Hilditch (New South Wales) [B]Thoughts: [/B]For the Maroons I don't think there were any real-stand outs of their side but I thought Khan, Phelan and McCabe all had their moments in the middle. Was a bit surprised at how ordinary Conescu was and thought Henrick was pretty hopeless. Meanwhile, I think the Blues had more stand outs. I thought Grothe was one of the best players on the field and Sterlo looked really good early. Rest had pretty mixed games with Fahey being pretty ordinary. I think the Maroons basically had a slight edge in the ruck. [B]Referee: [/B]Kevin Steele (New Zealand) A balding Kiwi who favoured the Maroons. Queensland won the most penalties and I think got the benefit of a few calls. Only one I felt that went against them was Grothe's try where I think his foot may have gone into touch on Backer's tackle but can live with it. [B]Commentary:[/B] NSW commentary team who didn't introduce themselves. A very laidback call of the game where they seemed more concerned about the behaviour of the Queensland fans than the action at times. Things this guy hated about Queensland... *Their fans heckling Cronin when he lined up conversions *Their fans chanting *The kids running out onto the field *Choppy backhanding Grothe. Should have been a send off apparently. *Price headbutting Phelan and Phelan being consulted by a trainer. *Their selection of Choppy as MotM Not a very good call really. Didn't capture the excitement of the spectacle and felt really laidback. Guess that was just the style pre-Eastlake/Rabs although Smith was a better caller. [/QUOTE]

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