League: Rampant Maroons force decider

Queensland's Darren Lockyer speeds to elude the tackle of NSW's Brett Finch in Brisbane last night. Bradley Kanaris / Getty Images

Queensland turned on a Lang Park demolition job, thrashing New South Wales 30-6 last night to breathe life into this year's State of Origin series.

The Maroons forwards - lambasted for a poor display in the opening encounter in Sydney - turned the tables on their opponents with a relentless barrage for which the Blues had no answer.

Their dominance laid the platform for Queensland's backs to run riot, with winger Adam Mogg bagging a brace of tries in a memorable debut.

Queensland's victory forced a decider in Melbourne in three weeks and ensured they at least delayed the indignity of becoming the first side to lose four straight Origin series.

Skipper Darren Lockyer produced the performance many knew he was capable of, and with half-back Johnathan Thurston feeding off that the Maroons were unstoppable.

"The boys played really well, put us right back in the series and with one game to go, if we can play like we did tonight we'll be hard to beat," man-of-the-match Lockyer told ABC Grandstand.

"Tonight we were a team, we did the little things like our kick chases great and put them under pressure. Everyone talked about getting aggressive and you saw that in the first 10 minutes - we put a few shots on their big boys, they dropped some ball and that just lifted the team."

Debutant full-back Karmichael Hunt said the players were desperate to answer their critics.

"We've been copping a lot of flak, especially from the New South Wales guys all week and it hurts," he said.

"Being a Queenslander, even being criticised by your own people, we had to turn up here tonight and play a physical game from the first whistle. That's what I did and that's what the team did."

Props Petero Civoniceva and Steve Price were inspirational, with a bone-jarring hit by Civoniceva on Mark O'Meley setting the tone.

Carl Webb opened the try-scoring when he burst over from a scrum, forced when Mark Gasnier was barrelled over the sideline by Mogg after taking a Thurston rainmaker.

Then with eight minutes to go in the first half Justin Hodges - outstanding throughout the game - intercepted a Braith Anasta pass 10 metres out from his line and streaked away to score.

The half-time score read 14-0 and with the Blues desperate to get on the board early in the second half, a mistake ensued.

Anasta's long pass to Gasnier was a poor one but what Thurston did was magic.

He got boot to ball, chased, regathered with finger-tip control and passed to Mogg in one movement for a stunning Queensland try.

When Mogg beat Gasnier to score his second try in the corner the win was complete, only for Lockyer to combine with Shaun Berrigan to ice it under the posts.

The Blues finally found some space for Timana Tahu to cross late on, the first time they had scored a try since the 20th minute of the opening game.

SCORING

Queensland 30 (A Mogg 2 C Webb J Hodges S Berrigan tries J Thurston 5 goals)
NSW 6 (T Tahu try B Hodgson goal)

Crowd: 52,468.
Referee: S Clark.

- RADIO AUSTRALIA