Parker was injured
Tate was injured
Slater was injured
Hodges, as usual, hurt himself early in the game
Thurston had one of his worst rep games ever
Cronk was, deservedly, sin binned for 10 mins
NSW, at home, with no injuries and absolutely everything to play for.... Won by 4 points.
I highly doubt Game 3 will be as helpful to the NSW cause.
finally, someone has brought this up.
Consensus amongst most is that QLD have been outplayed by NSW in both games. They won one, and lost the other by 4pts.
Thing is, is there improvement in QLD? It's easy to simply say that QLD have been grinding the gears so far, but perhaps not enough credit is being given to NSW in preventing them from rolling on?
In Game 1, it was NSW winning the territory battle that prevented QLD from playing getting into gear. In Game 2, QLD won the territory but it was the NSW defense's ability to absorb the pressure that made a difference. Many times in the past few series, NSW teams haven't been able to compete in these areas.
For a change, the NSW combinations are being maintained and they are getting used to playing alongside each other. It can only get better for NSW. The glaring weakness for NSW IMO is the predictable diagonal running on 3rd & 4th tackles, and the lack of organisation on 5th and 6th tackles as well as the next play after a line break. In Game 1, line breaks were covered by QLD and NSW did not have a subsequent play to capitlise. In Game 2, two line breaks resulted directly in tries which diminished the need for organisation on the next play. It doesn't mean that this isn't an important area that has to be improved for Game 3 though. If it's a tight affair up at Lang Park, it's will be this facet of the game that will be the difference.
