|
The 1991 State of Origin series saw the tenth time the annual three-match State of Origin series between the New South Wales and Queensland representative rugby league teams was played entirely under 'state of origin' selection rules. It was notable as Wally Lewis' farewell from Origin football and featured his half-time stoush with Mark Geyer in Game II which match culminated in Michael O'Connor's sensational match-winning sideline conversion in teeming rain. For the first time since State of Origin became a three game series in 1982, Queensland named the same starting XIII for each game of the series. The Maroons only made two changes during the series, with Origin veterans Dale Shearer coming onto the bench for Game 2 in Sydney to replace Steve Renouf, and Bob Lindner, the player of the 1990 Kangaroo tour, named on the bench for Game 3 in Brisbane (replacing Gavin Allen) after recovering from a broken leg. This saw Queensland only use 19 players for the series. In contrast, NSW only had seven players there for the entire series (five of whom started each game) and used a total of 24 players. ==Game I== Controversy preceded the start of the series when Maroon's coach and Queensland Origin figurehead Arthur Beetson was deposed in favour of Manly-Warringah coach, New Zealander Graham Lowe, the only non-Queenslander to have coached the Maroons. Two time Canberra Raiders premiership winning coach Tim Sheens got the job as New South Wales coach, replacing ''Supercoach'' Jack Gibson. Ben Elias was retained as captain of the Blues, while Wally Lewis retained the captaincy of Queensland despite Mal Meninga being the incumbent Australian captain. Queensland lost their Australian fullback Gary Belcher to a knee injury only two days before the game and he was replaced by 20-year-old Broncos fullback Paul Hauff. Interestingly, NSW coach Time Sheens gave the Blues goal kicking duties to veteran Michael O'Connor over regular Penrith club kicker Greg Alexander despite O'Connor not having been Manly's first choice kicker since early in 1990 and having only kicked 2 goals to that point of the 1991 season. It took sixty-four minutes for the first try to be scored in a nailbiting series opener at Lang Park. The try featured the two veterans of the Queensland side - Wally Lewis ran wide and powered halfway through an opening and then found Mal Meninga in support who bulldozed through Greg Alexander and Andrew Ettingshausen's attempted tackle to score. Laurie Daley scored his team's only try late in the second half after grubber-kicking behind Michael Hancock into the corner and winning the race to the ball. Meninga landed only one of his four shots at goal but it proved decisive as both Michael O'Connor and Alexander missed their only attempts. O'Connor's conversion attempt of Daley's try went wide leaving Qld with a 6-4 lead. Alexander had a chance to level the scores after NSW received a penalty when Meninga's restart from the Daley try was kicked over the dead ball line on the full, but his kick from half way was wide and short and fell safely into the arms of Wally Lewis who took the tackle to end the game. After only being a late callup into the Queensland team, replacement fullback Paul Hauff put in a near man of the match performance in his Origin and representative debut, with most judges believing he would have won the award had he not been forced off midway through the second half with a dislocated shoulder. Early in the first half he twice saved certain NSW tries when he first tackled a flying Greg Alexander into touch, and only minutes later he managed to scramble back and prevent Ettingshausen from picking up the ball and scoring next to the posts after ET put in a grubber kick behind Hauff. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1991 State of Origin series」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|