So Queensland have produced a sensational effort to smash a poor NSW Blues to win Game Two and wrap up the 2023 Series. There was so much happening, so to unpack all the players performances, action and stats is our 2023 State of Origin Game Two Player Ratings – Minute by Minute Summary & Stats.
We offer our Team of the Match based on various positional stats, our rating of the best and least best, a minute by minute of the game to relive or catch up with the action plus all the key player stats you could ever want or need.
2023 State of Origin Game Two Player Ratings Great, Grape & Bowman
So instead of tediously going through and giving every player a score out of ten, we hand pick a few of the more noteworthy players from game one and class them under our three headings.
Great is obvious, Grape is for the least great players on the park, and Bowman is named after Paul Bowman, a fine player who somehow managed to stay relatively anonymous during his Origin career.
THE GREAT
LINDSAY COLLINS – After starring in Adelaide with a powerful performance and out-jumping an Australian fullback he doubled down in Brisbane on Wednesday with a huge performance. Whenever stuff was happening, Lindsay Collins appeared to be involved whne he was on the field, and sealed the Man of the Match for his efforts.
REECE WALSH – All pre series chat for Queensland was about dropping the regulars Kalyn Ponga and Dane Gagai for Reece Walsh and The Hammer, and fair to say it’s worked out OK for the Maroons and Billy Slater. Reece Walsh was very solid in game one, but game two saw him spring to life in attack and was electric. His 60m break led to a Qld try, and he threw the final pass more than once. His bullshit antics with Luai were stupid, but he had the last laugh with the series win and a fine performance.
DALY CHERRY-EVANS – His cover tackle on the Stephen Crichton intercept is probably enough alone to make the Great list. Throw in a line break and excellent general play, and DCE has fully turned around the Qld support.
CAMERON MUNSTER – Ran the game when DCE wasn’t doing so. Kicking game was great. And did a few good things in defence by being in the right place at the right time.
HAMISO TABUAI-FIDOW – So good again, scored another try, great in defence, a weapon with the high ball in attack and defence. Can’t hear talk about where Dan Gagai is. Possibly Dolphins bias here.
BRIAN TO’O – So honest, producing his customary massive amount of metres, and does it without fuss or being a large dickhead like others from his state/club.
PAYNE HAAS – Continued his exceptional 2023 with another big performance. One of NSW’s best.
THE GRAPE
BRAD FITTLER – Has coached his last series for the Blues, and wonders how he won any series. NSW looked like strangers, and aside for a little burst in the second half and the melee at the end showed little fight. Look at Billy Slater’s key selections, then compare to Brad Fittler’s chaos and there can only be one outcome.
DAMIEN COOK – Sad, but true. Played out of position and it showed. He tried hard . don’t get us wrong, and we love the lively hooker, but he was poor. But the bigger question was why he was left in the ole for so long. Why?
JAMES TEDESCO – Was below his best, like most of 2023, and will be struggling to hold onto his spot next year without an uplift in form. Captain or no captain.
TOM TRBOJEVIC – Has rarely been fit this season, and should have done the right thing for NSW and moved aside for Campbell Graham.
CHANNEL NEIN – Dreadful. And that Shane Warne telemovie can piss right off. One more to go.
THE BOWMAN
NSW Forwards – We go through the NSW pack and can barely remember any of their players doing anything. Payne Haas was the exception.
Ben Hunt – A quiet night by his standards. Maybe the Dragons thing is playing on his mind.
Stefano Utoikamanu – Played 14 minutes, and although did nothing wrong, you know NSW feed him some blame to eat.
2023 State of Origin Game Two Minute by Minute
2 Min – Penalty to Qld as Turbo lies all over player then falls on top.
3 Min – Qld attack to left ends up over the sideline with great NSW cover. Turbo injures arm in the process and is off the field. Later confirmed as a pectoral injury. Damien Cook replaces causing shift and questioning where he fits.
6 Min – Huge Moses bomb goes uncontested for both sides, Qld get lucky this time. Qld a little scrappy.
7 Min – First penalty to NSW. Attack from halfway. Ends in seven tackle set for Qld, but signs are promising for the Blues.
9 Min – Queensland have crossed for a try to Valentine Holmes which is referred to the Video Referee as No Try. It comes from a short kick to Xavier Coates over Josh Add-Carr, the NSW winger loses the ball backwards and Homes pounces on the ball, but it required more video scrutiny as it wasn’t clear if Holmes had grounded it properly. The Bunker said yes and Queensland open the scoring for game two. The conversion missed, so the score remained 4-0.
15 Min – First melee of the night as Hudson Young and Tom Flegler trade pushes at the ruck. The rest of the game joins in for a little push and shove. Penalty to NSW as “he started it’. NSW attack close again but no cigar as Cameron Munster cleans up. Qld still look a little scrappy with loose passes in their own half.
22 Min – First real line break of the night goes begging as Jeremiah Nanai backhanded pass to Xavier Coates missed its mark. If the pass was right, it looked a runaway try.
24 Min – Little chip and chase early in the tackle count for Mitchell Moses almost pays off. A sneaky play which puts Qld on notice. The follow up possibly should have seen a try, but the ball found Damien Cook in the centres and he couldn’t get the ball to the winger Addo-Carr.
26 Min – Penalty to NSW. Previous set from Queensland was one of their more promising.
27 Min – NSW on attack from penalty on the Qld line. Repeat set, NSW Blues on attack close to the line. Damien Cook goes close on the left. NSW head back right and the ball ends up over the sideline.
30 Min – Qld on the NSW line in attack, and melee number two breaks out. Jarome Luai at the heart of it, no penalty.
31 Min – Stephen Crichton intercept. He looks set to score but is chased down by DCE….Full set on Qld line and NSW throw it away with a poor pass. Qld hang on again.
33 Min – Qld punish them. DCE breaks off an offload from someone we couldn’t at the time due to excessive cheering. A play later they go left, Reece Walsh to David Fifita to The Hammer (via a forward pass) to Murray Tualagi to score, after he flirts with the dead ball line for 10 metres. The conversion from in front gave Queensland a 10-0 lead with five minutes to the half time break.
35 Min – Qld look dangerous straight away but Reece Walsh drops the ball when a line break beckoned. NSW return the favour when Luai loses the ball on Qld’s line to the delight of the Queensland crowd.
38 Min – Penalty to NSW, they are on the attack of the Qld line again. Six again, and NSW still pressing but ends in disappointment. Much like most of the NSW attack in the first half.
HALF TIME QLD 10 NSW 0
43 Min – Reece Walsh makes a break from a bomb catch, gets 60 metres upfield before being stopped by James Tedesco. A few plays later and Queensland had struck the first blow of the second half when the ball eventually found its way to Valentine Holmes who reached out to score. Reece Walsh throwing the final pass to bookend the attacking set. Holmes slotted the sideline conversion with ease and the Maroons now led 16-0.
47 Min – NSW on the attack for repeat sets, and they can’t break the Qld line. Stephen Crichton goes real close in the corner, but is held up again by Murray Tualagi, repeating his Game One heroics. The attacks eventually dies like so many before them, with a poor pass over the sideline, highlighting Damien Cook’s ineffectiveness as stand-in centre.
50 Min – And Queensland make NSW pay one more time. Queensland run the blind side through Munster, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and finally Xavier Coates, who puts in a chip kick back inside which Payne Haas has covered until it bounces, and proving nearly everything is on Queensland’s side the ball jinks left to the Hammer who scores yet another Maroons try. Holmes misses the conversion and the score remained 20-0.
54 Min – A call going the Blues way as they challenge a completed set with a knock on from Queensland but receive a penalty for a high tackle instead from Reece Walsh on Jarome Luai. Their attack fizzles out and they remain scoreless.
57 Min – NSW finally cross the Queensland line and it is stand-in centre Damien Cook who makes up for a pretty ordinary night. It was a little from broken play as an offload went astray, but Cook pierced through the Maroons line for the try. Moses converted the try to give NSW a sniff of a comeback at 20-6 with 22 minutes to go.
59 Min – They try lifted the Blues who lifted the intensity a few notches. Somehow Xavier Coates stays in plays when he looked to be heading for the third row of the grandstand. But the angry tackles were picking up for the Blues.
61 Min – Penalty to NSW. Another attack thwarted by Queensland, this time by a poor Mitchell Moses grubber and cleaned up by Maroons superman Lindsay Collins.
63 Min – Queensland repeat set as they push Damien Cook back in goal after a cross field kick. Penalty too, they take the tap and a few plays later have extended the lead and extinguished the Blues comeback. This time Xavier Coates puts on the acrobatics in the corner to score with a few centimetres to spare, the final pass thrown by Reece Walsh again. Holmes converts from the sideline to make it 26-6.
70 Min – That last try unsurprisingly took the wind out of the Blues’ sails, as their attacking plays continued to flop and their ferocious defense from a few minutes prior was fizzing.
74 Min – More luck for Queensland as a cross field kick looks easily covered by Damien Cook, but he is then taken out by his own player Josh Addo-Carr, and Jeremiah Nanai was on hand to pick up the crumbs and score the sixth Queensland try. Holmes converted for a 32-6 lead.
80 Min – The game fizzled out in the last minutes of the game, but there was still time for one more melee, with Jarome Luai involved with Reece Walsh. It escalates when Josh Addo-Carr runs in with a cheap shot. Reece Walsh also throws in a head butt towards Luai. Addo-Carr gets ten minutes in the sin bin with 22 seconds to go. More sensation to come as Reece Walsh is sent off for the head butt. But it doesn’t stop there as Jarome Luai is also sent off for an even better head butt. You’d think it may be Luai’s last minute of Origin.
2023 State of Origin Game Two Player Ratings – Team of the Match
Going further than the above, here is the best 13 players from the match according to stats relevant to each position, plus the best four interchange players.
2023 State of Origin Game Two Player Ratings – Player Stats
Want or need a bunch of key stats from last night so you can make your armchair selections for Game Two? Here you go then.
And to be honest, you look at the player stats, and the stats weren’t that one-sided.
