NSW have secured a historic women’s State of Origin clean sweep over Queensland after falling agonisingly short last year.
The 12-4 win on the Gold Coast on Thursday night was far from pretty but it was a sweet victory for captain Isabelle Kelly and her team.
Queensland inflicted pain on NSW in the old interstate series when the competition between the teams was a one-off match affair, winning 16 games in a row from 1999 before a draw in 2015.
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State of Origin for women was born in 2018 and the first three-match series was in 2024.
Last year the Maroons won the final match of the series to deny the Blues a 3-0 result but not this time, in front of 11,816 fans.
The Blues were powerful through the middle early courtesy of rampaging prop Ellie Johnston and elite lock Olivia Kernick, who ran for a stunning 211m and made 31 tackles in an extraordinary display.
NSW dominated possession and territory early but the hosts dug deep.
Maroons winger Jasmine Peters made a try-saver to jar the ball loose from the grasp of opposite number Jayme Fressard as she went to put the ball down.
One of the hits of the opening half was a bone rattler by Queensland five-eighth Chantay Kiria-Ratu on NSW No.6 Jocelyn Kelleher that rocked the stadium.
The issue for the Maroons was the errors in their own half that kept inviting the Blues into it.
Something had to give and brilliant half Jesse Southwell orchestrated a backline move that sent Blues centre Kelly in for the opening try.
Peters scored after scintillating backline play by Kiria-Ratu and debutant fullback Destiny Mino-Sinapati to level it up.
Maroons halves Kiria-Ratu and Lauren Brown upped the ante in the second half but the Blues were up to the challenge.
After Southwell landed a penalty, Kelly’s offload to Fressard had the elusive winger cutting back on a diagonal run to get the Blues out to an eight-point lead
The Maroons were without captain Tamika Upton, star winger Julia Robinson and tough forward Makenzie Weale due to injury.
Gold Coast product Mino-Sinapati, who replaced Upton, had an outstanding Origin debut with her darting and weaving running style and ball playing.
NSW women join the three Blues men’s sides to have won series 3-0, achieved in 1986, 1996 and 2000.
