The New South Wales Blues claimed victory over the Queensland Maroons in the Women’s State of the Origin opener on Thursday.
The final score sat at 32-12, with NSW Blues’ win against the defending champions happening in front of a record crowd at Suncorp Stadium in Queensland.
At half-time, the Blues held a 14-12 lead, which they kept away from the Maroons, who remained scoreless after the break from a series of mistakes.
Blues captain Isabelle Kelly was named player of the match, as she scored a try and beat a threat several times on the left edge.
The Blues were supported by key contributions from three debutantes, including late try-scorer Abbi Church, Jayme Fressard, who crossed twice on the left wing.
The third debutant who made a huge impact was towering prop forward Ellie Johnston. When the match was in balance during the second half, Johnston scored a try and her tough running setting up another.
“Me and Em [Emma Verran] have a really good connection, and she just knew that I wanted it, and I knew Queensland were short on that side so I just went for it,” Johnston said after the game.
Blues captain Kelly described Johnston as “unreal” and said that “after [Johnston’s] NRLW season with the Sharks, I knew that she was going to have a really great crack at our campaign, and I was so proud [when she scored].”
Queensland captain Tamika Upton said her team tried hard to claim the win but too many errors took away their chance.
“We gave them a lot of ball, and we definitely paid the price for it, but I’m very proud of the girls for their defence, particularly the debutantes, it was a very tough slog in the middle there,” said Upton.
This match was the first in four days of the NRL’s Magic Round. The crowd of 26,022 broke the previous record of 25,782 that attended game two in last season’s series.