The pinnacle of rugby league, the three game State of Origin series, got underway at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane as the Maroons faced the Blues, New South Wales seeking to get off to the best of starts to retain the shield after wrestling it from Queensland in 2024.

Last season the Maroons won the opening game convincingly before losing the second and third outings to lose the shield that they had held for the previous two seasons, although they still hold a 24-17 series lead since the start of modern origin games in 1982.

The bookies were predicting a close game pre-kick-off but leaned slightly towards the Blues, handicapping them by four points on the coupon, the stage was set for a cracker.

The opening exchanges were everything that you’d expect from the first game in the series, rough, tough and uncompromising as both sides look to set out their stalls and show their dominance.

The Blues opened the scoring on nine minutes when Nathan Cleary took the opportunity to kick a twenty-metre penalty after a ball steal under the sticks. There was nothing to choose between the sides.

The first four pointer came on twenty-four, Zac Lomax on hand to take a sublime pass from Angus Crichton and go down the right wing as the Blues elected to run the ball on the last tackle, offloading and passing in a right to left move. Cleary hit the far post with his conversion attempt, the lead just six points.

Incredible fast hand passing on twenty-nine saw the Blues extend their lead, the final ball from Latrell Mitchell into the hand of Brian To’o who leapt for the corner to ground spectacularly by the flag. Cleary was wide with his conversion attempt, Queensland now needed two score twice to get back in the game.

Tapping a penalty on thirty-five the Blues kept the ball alive and a Cleary dummy created the space for Lomax to go in for his second of the evening. Cleary was again wide with the conversion, now one from four, but the game was ebbing away from the Marrons.

In the dying seconds Xavier Coates leapt to take a Daly Cherry-Evans kick to the right corner, but he was tackled in the air by To’o before he took the ball, the Blues winger sin-binned and missing the opening ten minutes of the second half. Valentine Holmes kicked the resulting penalty to peg the Blues back to 14-2 at the interval, of Cleary had been wearing his kicking boots then the Blues would have been out of sight.

The Maroons were right back in the game five minutes after the restart. Jeremiah Nanai dislodged the ball in a crunching tackle which gifted possession back to Queensland on the Blues. Moving the ball quickly right Xavier Coates took the final pass to dive in at the corner. Holmes was wide with the conversion, the Maroons still eight adrift.

An incredible try from the Blues sealed the win on seventy-two on the last tackle after two repeat sets on the Queensland line. A Cleary chip to the corner was offloaded twice, the second miraculously by Connor Watson with Dylan Edwards on hand to take the last gasp offload and drop over the line. Lomax took over the kicking duties, but he too was wide with the goal attempt.

Cleary was well wide with a drop goal attempt on seventy-seven.

Queensland had a try ruled out on seventy-nine for a forward pass, the last chance of the game ebbing away, the Blues with a dominant 18-6 win.

New South Wales took up in 2025 Origin where they left off at the end of the 2024 season with a dominant performance to go one up in the series and record an advantage in their quest to retain the shield.

Queensland had a poor first half and trailed three tries to zero but put in a better second half performance demonstrating that they could still be a force to be reckoned with in game two in a few weeks’ time.

Queensland: Ponga, Coates (T), Toia, Tabuai-Fidow, Holmes (G 1/2), Munster, Cherry-Evans, Fotuaika, Grant, Fa’asuamaleaui, Cotter Nanai, Carrigan. Subs: Dearden, Collins, Fermor, Loiero. 18^th Man: Mann. 

New South Wales: Edwards /T), To’o (T, SB on 40), Crichton S, Mitchell, Lomax (2T, G 0/1), Moses, Cleary (G 1/4), Barnett, Robson, Haas, Martin, Crichton A, Yeo.  Subs: Watson, Leniu, Young, King. 18^th Man: Graham.

Half-Time: 2-14.

Full-Time: 6-18.

Score Progression: 0-2, 0-6, 0-10, 0-14, (SB), 2-14 : HT: 6-14, 6-18 :FT.

Lead Exchanges: NSW.

Referee: Ashley Klein.   

Attendance: 52,483.