Origin games are officiated differently to the weekly rounds - high tackles, pushing and shoving and in this case, an outright battering, are tolerated for the sake of a fast, intense game.

Imagine Mr Child reffing that one - he'd have blown the pea out his whistle.

Oh and if you think Gansons VR decisions are dodgy - go back and look at some previous SOO VR calls

Interesting to see the quality of the centres on display.

Inglis did little but one freakish attacking move results in a try.
Hodges was excellent in attack and so was Jennings with his brilliant try.
Only Jennings blemish was his failure to take a high kick

Not sure what game you watched! I found it incredibly slow at the play the ball with all the wrestling and laying on. I really hope in the WC they ref to SL speed not NRL!

Generally a poor game, 12 NSW errors, no creativity and really only one decent attacking play from eitther side all game which led to tries. One of the worse I've seen for a long time.

Thruston was crook, Cronk took his poor form of the last few weeks into the game, Pearce puts to bed any debate that Australia has great depth of talent and only Maolney looked anything like a dangerous halfback.

Lewis was outstanding for NSW, Hodges was good for Q'land, Gallen needs a good smack and Inglis didn;t get enough quality ball. I still see a Q'land 2-1 win.

Glad it wasn't just me, I thought it was fairly poor game as well. NSW played well but Queensland were awful, just hope Smith, Slater, Thurston , Cronk and Inglis pay like that in the WC.

Gallen does something idiotic and cheap everytime I see him play. If he lines up against England he should be niggled in every single tackle by every single player, he can easily be got at and is fond of the cheap shot. Every forward on the field should be going out there knowing if they dont take a smack from Gallen they have failed in their job.

Get Ryan Bailey on the field, that'll do the trick

Fine, except that Gallen along with Lewis was the outstanding player on the pitch. He set the tone for NSW forward dominance, took the ball in effectively 2 drives every 6, was involved in half the tackles. No coincidence QLD came back into the game after he was taken off around 60 minutes and were strangled back out of it after he came back on after 70. Yes, he's a grub and you can wind him up, but you're never going to sent off for a couple of sly digs or punches at test level and generally it seems winding him up only makes him play better.

Is it just me that thinks Thursty boy is vastly overrated?

THats fine, if he is going to dominate our forwards we have two options, we either do get him sent off for the sly digs and punches he is so fond of and he is sent off. If it is decided that isnt a sending off offence we beat him up.

Gallen, Watmough, Luke, Shillington, Blair, Eastwood, etc have all kicked off at least once these last few years in internationals. The Aussies and Kiwis have that mongrel streak in them, and they're confident enough in their own ability that they'll venture into the realms of illegality if they feel they've been wronged or need to stamp their physical authority on the game.

One of the problems I think England have had since I've watched them is that they're too nice for their own good. The Kangaroos and Kiwis have no fear of the opposition, as important is they also have no fear of the officials. Our players are either scared of the referee or are just too damn nice.

I look at it this way. What is going to happen if someone baits Gallen into punching them? In international league the likelihood is nothing. Refs will rarely sin bin players and they almost never red card players. International games are not reffed to SL standards. Think most of us should have learnt that to our peril by now? When Issac Luke tried to break Rangi Chase ankle was it not apparent? When Jeremy Smith elbowed Tomkins in the head, or JWH put some strange choke-roll on Tomkins, wasn't it apparent then? What about when Watmough punched Widdop, T-Rex took Westwoods head off, if I remember nothing happened. Rewind a few more years for any of the fights between Aus and NZ that had no punishment whatsoever. Or even further back to when England was GB, and Willie Mason dropped Fielden and elbowed Long in the head, or when the Kiwis played Aus in the same Tri Nations series and Matt King started a fight with Matai, then a few minutes later Kidwell elbowed Mason in the head, no real punishment for that either. In every case of cheap shots and fighting I can think of in international league, irrespective of circumstance, the response from the ref has been tame to non-existent.

So if we want to unnerve Gallen/Australia I would think the best course of action would be to send forwards after him not to niggle him, but to bait him into a fight AND do what Smokey has just offered as option 2 - beat him senseless when he takes a bait!

The problem is, other than Hock, none of the English forwards could fight their way out of a paper bag.

Gallen would make mince meat of all England's pack, both legally and illegally! Sam Burgess is the only one who can get anywhere near his in-game performance levels, but he'd not stand a chance going toe to toe with Gallen if things got fiery. Look for videos of Gallen boxing, he's very handy.

England would be silly to get into a battle with the Aus pack. They need to simply take it to them with line speed and numbers in defence, and work for quick play the balls in attack - trying to bully or get physical with them would IMO be a mistake and would play into their hands.

Keith Mason tweeted just after Gallen's flurry of punches, in praise of his toughness, adding that he would like to play against him; you can imagine the response from some Twatterers.

To the person who asks if Thurston is over-rated - patently not; I gather he has the flu and judging by his performance, probably shouldn't have played today.

In general terms, it was a fairly poor quality game, but the intensity of Origin makes it a great spectacle; I wish we could recreate it over here.

Whenever I watch the cowboys, he generally disappoints me / goes missing when they're chasing a game. I remember being at Souths V Cowboys 2 years ago, Cowboys 6 up with 90 seconds to go, Thursty boy throws a 90 yard interception for souths to tie it & win it in extra time. I couldn't believe an Australian test standard scrum half would do such a thing!

It's better than SL for the small things - no ridiculous sending offs for a punch-up, less penalties which creates a far better spectacle anyway, even restarting the game after a try and for dropouts the game is stopped so no time is wasted.

Mason would get taken to the cleaners big time unless he did him with a cheap shot whilst Gallen was held down by a number of defenders,Mason could never be classed as a tough guy

No way Thurston should have played today, but I guess he can console himself with a consecutive games record as a result of that nightmare.

QLD had no idea how to use Inglis in the centres for some reason, Melbourne's big 3 are all in poor form, sadly I doubt that will carry on until the end of the season.

Lewis was easily man of the match, Hayne showed that the NSW selectors not putting him at full back for the past 4-5 years has been idiotic, they're clearly blinded by the joke of a team, the Eels.

Finally, what is with the lack of props?

Always enjoy the intensity though, and so glad NSW took the opener, finally makes things interesting again!

Little Issac Luke gave a decent account of himself last time he got into it with Gallen, as hard as it is to believe!

NSW didn't seem to mind picking a 17th man that played no minutes. We could always pick Ryan Baileys did and bring him on for a few minutes if we need to put Gallen in his place

I think JT is just having a bad season by his standards but also didn't I hear in the interviews after the match that his missus is expecting a baby at the weekend? Maybe the reason why if so.

IMO it was the fastest and exciting match I have seen on TV this year. I also prefer watching NRL matches to superleague. The PTB isn't necesary slower, you have to earn the right to win the ruck. In comparison the players over here have to get off quickly or they are penalised.

Hayne was brilliant today.

As mentioned it wasn't up the quality if some origins however it was still intense.

I thought it was pretty average, Qld were terrible. They had no structure, just one out footy apart from the lead up to Boyd's try which was brilliant.

S.O.O are my favourite games of the year, the intensity is immense.

Blues should have won by more than eight, their ball retention was poor, however, I thought the Maroons underestimated N.S.W from the off, probably due to their years of dominance, but they were the better side in the second half.

Looking forwards to game two, but I think Queensland will level it up.

I thought it was fast but not a great or a high quality game. It was kept close by NSW's inability to find the killer blow. I thought the halves on both sides were fairly poor and whilst Gallen, Bird and Lewis were excellent for NSW I thought Queenslands pack were fairly poor.
By SOO standards I thought it was a poor game.

I wasn't impressed at all, Queensland's 5 drives and bomb the young winger tactic would have looked average in Leighs league.
Thurston and Cronk did nothing, I wasn't even impressed with NSW either, they just wern't as bad as Queensland and had a scrum half playing.
Luke Lewis was the most impressive player on the pitch, I said last week on a thread he was the Australia player i'm most frightened of.

People on here seem unaware that Cronk is out of form at Melbourne. He carried his Melbourne form into SoO.

Jonathan Thurston was obviously not fit. He did nothing the whole game. He should not have played and could have been replaced by Daly Cherry-Evans or Scott Prince.

With both halves incapable of playing to their ability, it is no wonder that Inglis got little opportunity and that NSW won.