The Queensland Maroons won State or Origin II, following up their win in the first game over the New South Wales Blues.
Maroon winger Dane Gagai scored a brace of tries. He scored the only try in the first half before adding two more in the second. Good performances were turned in by Darius Boyd, Greg Inglis, Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith.
The Blues did not go down peacefully by any stretch. They closed to within striking range in the 68th minute when James Maloney scored a runaway intercept try on a 90-metre run and added the conversion. That closed the gap to 20 – 16.
Maloney left Justin O’Neill in his wake, and even though O’Neill is a well-known speed merchant, he could not close on Maloney.
Momentum clearly swung back toward the Blues and came close to leveling the game on their next attack.
Tyson Frizell dove onto a ball that would have given the Blues a try, but for the desperation swipe by Michael Jennings knocked the ball on just before Frizell could ground the try.
