Now *that's* what I call Origin

More than any other event in rugby league, State of Origin commands its own vernacular and feeds its own clichés. You don’t need to be a star to shine in The Origin Arena, you need to be An Origin Player. People from Sydney wearing Blues shirts Just Don’t Get Origin, whereas those in Maroon are possessed by The Queensland Spirit. When Cam Munster kicked deep from his own half on the third tackle to relieve pressure on Wednesday night, the commentators ignored the fact it’s a tactic we see every week in club rugby and gushed about how, “that’s An Origin Play.”

When writing about Stephen Crichton following New South Wales’ win in Game One of this year’s series, I poked fun at how overblown some of the hype around Origin becomes. For all the series is a showcase of the best talent in the deepest talent pool in world rugby, there is such a fetishisation of grit, hard work, commitment and, above all, defence — any tackle close to a defender's own tryline is susceptible to being deemed An Origin Play — that I can’t help but think in some people’s eyes the perfect Origin fixture would end 0-0 after eighty minutes. That should then be followed by either side kicking a drop-goal in the final seconds of golden point after a gruelling slog in which neither side missed a tackle.

Unfortunately, the best Australia has to offer couldn’t match the drama of Wigan 0 Leigh 1 in Super League, but Game Two in Perth was infinitely more engrossing than Game One in Brisbane because it was everything Origin aspires not to be.

Played in torrential rain, New South Wales completed at a shade over 50% in the first half. With Nathan Cleary hampered by injury and struggling to kick for much of the game, his half-back partner Jarome Luai belted the ball out on the full in their first set of possession. Trying to take responsibility after the break, Cleary only went and made the same mistake, too. The usually perfect Stephen Crichton and Payne Haas dropped passes cold. By half-time Queensland were leading 26-6 and heading for a series decider in Sydney.

Queensland were hardly perfect themselves. Full-back Kalyn Ponga didn't seem to fancy catching a high kick all night, and the second half suggested what everyone thought all along: the Blues are a much better team at this moment in time, provided they can resist the urge to shit the bed. Brian To’o’s hat-trick was at the heart of a New South Wales comeback that ended with the Blues scoring more tries yet still falling two points short, with Zac Lomax successfully kicking just two from five (admittedly difficult) conversion attempts.

The result has baffled fans and media either side of the state line, but in the middle of all the chaos were so many moments that were lacking in the routine New South Wales victory of Game One.

The brawls that Sky Sports were using to advertise the game in the UK are a thing of yesteryear, but plenty of players still played with a devil on their shoulder. Liam Martin roared in Tino Fa'asuamaleaui’s face after forcing an error out of Queensland’s enforcer, only for Valentine Holmes to immediately return serve on Martin the next time he touched the ball, giving Tino the opportunity to laugh back at the Blues’ yapping dog. (I love the mongrel in Liam Martin, for what it’s worth, but them’s the breaks I’m afraid.)

Wrestling for a quick play the ball, Lomax elbowed Trent Loiero in the head. Luai had a sneaky grab of Reuben Cotter’s face and was put on report, only for Cotter to insist afterwards that he hadn’t been eye-gouged and let Luai escape with a fine. For all the headlosses over the referee’s performance from those in Blue, the grubbiest act of the game belong to Latrell Mitchell picking up Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and throwing him to floor with the game stopped, which was completely ignored because Origin is an arena where men can still be men and you can leave your front door open without fear of being burgled.

After all the furore of Queensland not kicking off towards pantomime villain and human catapult Spencer Lenui in Game One, Lindsay Collins — written off as an out of form plodder following the same game — twice sat his club teammate on his arse from kick offs. And there was even some good rugby too. Tom Dearden’s kick for Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to leap over To’o and score his second of the night was a beautifully precise try. To’o dusted himself down and produced a typically freakish performance, running for over 200 metres to go with his hat-trick. After an unusual sloppy opening forty, Crichton made Holmes look silly in creating space to score where there was none. Holmes made up for the defensive lapse with some wonderfully pinpoint goalkicking that New South Wales lacked, which ultimately proved the difference.

New South Wales could and probably should have completed the biggest comeback in State of Origin history, butchering chances to seal the series in the final five minutes of the match. Yet Queensland held on for the win they ultimately deserved. In the middle of it all, Cam Munster — captaining the Maroons for the first time after the axing of Daly Cherry-Evans — was masterful. Like everyone else on the pitch, Munster wasn’t perfect, but he was everywhere, involved in everything in both attack and defence, scoring a try, running for over 100 metres, and being involved in a tackle at the death that forced Haas to drop the ball with the game on the line. Munster has had flashier, more eye-catching games in State of Origin, but there is something special about an ethereal playmaker turning himself into a sheer bludgeon and dragging their team to victory.

And so in a roundabout way that made sense to nobody, the clichés were once again proven to be true. The Queensland spirit prevailed in The Origin Arena as An Origin Player came up with some Origin Plays. Judging by some of the reaction in the Sydney press, maybe New South Wales just don’t get it after all. Turns out an imperfect Origin is sometimes the perfect Origin. ⬧