For once, the hype was right.
In the modern media marathon that is a 10-day Origin build-up, no one drew more attention, analysed ad nauseam, than respective state No.7s Nathan Cleary and Sam Walker.
Referee Ashley Klein still influenced the Blues’ 22-20 nail-biting win more than anyone else – not with set restarts and ruck officiating, but with one of the biggest calls in Origin history when he sent off Kalyn Ponga.
Ethan Strange went from cameo to starring role when, 36 hours out from kick-off, he was parachuted into a pressure-cooker debut, with all the hype that went with it, and turned in an outstanding maiden outing in a sky-blue jersey.
Alongside him, Cleary was outplayed for more than an hour. Walker entered the Origin arena the same way he stepped into the NRL – as a pint-size wunderkind, eyed with relish by opponents twice his size.
Walker ran out onto Accor Stadium laughing, kept it up when he unfurled the game’s best short kicking game for Rob Toia’s opening try, then threw the last pass for Tom Flegler to score four minutes later.
With NSW repeatedly coughing up possession and Queensland playing the conditions perfectly, Cleary and the Blues only managed to isolate Walker once defensively in the first half.
The rookie No.7’s most eye-catching moment though was the downtown kick that speaks best to a long Origin career.
With the Maroons pinned down, for once, Walker turned a 21-metre set into a great one with a clearing kick that sailed past James Tedesco from the toughest of angles. Queensland’s kick chase then picked off NSW fullback for a big gain.
Walker and tireless veteran Kurt Capewell combined again for a similar kick-chase gain early in the second half. At this point, NSW rarely looked like troubling the scorers, the Maroons seemed odds-on for a 1-0 series lead and Walker appeared set to be a deserving man of the match.
Klein’s seismic call to march Ponga for shoulder charging Tolu Koula in the head made for a 13-on-12 contest, and without it, the Blues weren’t winning.
Without Cleary and Strange, NSW wouldn’t have prevailed either, which sets the scene for another marathon of selection speculation around Mitchell Moses’ availability and what the Blues do for game two.
But even with the extra man advantage, NSW still had to pull the Maroons apart and recoup a 14-point deficit.
With Strange playing the running five-eighth role to a tee, Cleary handled the ball 87 times on Wednesday night (easily the most involvements of his Origin career), and came into his own in the 10 minutes that mattered most. Would a combination with fellow on-ball playmaker Moses have delivered the same commanding approach from the game’s best player?
The similarities to Cleary’s 2023 grand final masterclass are obvious. Not least because, aside from a fine no-look grubber for Hudson Young’s try in Origin I, Cleary was largely ineffectual for the first hour of both contests.
After Strange and Stephen Crichton got the Blues moving with the former’s long-range try, Cleary fell back on his bread and butter – rugby league’s best kicking game – to keep NSW on task.
His 69th minute 40-20 came after Harry Grant had pressured his previous clearing kick attempt and forced an error. Ponga’s replacement at fullback, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, wasn’t caught out of position – one of the game’s fastest men was flying to cut off Cleary’s scything kick – Cleary simply threaded a 50-metre needle, which Brad Fittler described afterwards as “one of the best kicks I’ve seen”.
In the next set, Cleary rattled onto a Blayke Brailey short ball and past Cameron Munster to close Queensland’s lead once more.
While the Blues struggled to ice their attacking chances at times – a cramping Haumole Olakau’atu struggling to pick up Tedesco’s awful pass was destined to be an Origin meme – Cleary’s kicking game kept them in it.
Jojo Fifita spilled a bomb in the 75th minute, and Tedesco redeemed himself, writing a bit more Origin folklore in the process, when he latched onto one last Cleary rainmaker.
Ponga’s removal from the game was book ended by the rival No.7s twisting the contest one way and then the other.
Already blessed with Tom Dearden, Maroons coach Billy Slater will eventually have to wrestle with how he and Walker fit into the same side and game plan – most likely for Origin III given Dearden’s recovery timeframe from an ankle injury.
Laurie Daley has Cleary and Strange to thank for salvaging a miserable first half from the Blues, where rare Brian To’o errors were compounded by the likes of Addin Fonua-Blake, Mitch Barnett and Crichton replicating underwhelming club form.
Barnett’s caveat is a lack of game time through injury, while Crichton has been playing through his well-documented shoulder issue.
At the scrum base though, Cleary went some way to answering his Origin critics, who will likely always be at hand given how high he himself sets the bar. That two rookies in Walker and Strange joined him only adds to the next round of hype.
