FORMER Bathurst Panther Harry Siejka made the most of his first start representing New South Wales at a senior level, taking man of the match honours as his team beat Queensland 18-14 in the inaugural under 20s State of Origin clash on Saturday.
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The match showed that NSW has players capable of ending Queensland’s six-year State of Origin reign, although it might be another few years before any of them graduate to that level.
The Blues had to survive a tense final 10 minutes as Queensland attacked their tryline looking to steal the win at Centrebet Stadium.
But as the baby Blues clung on to victory with desperate defence, they also looked to have unearthed a number of future NRL stars and perhaps an Origin saviour or two.
Siejka is one of only a handful of players in the match that has tasted first grade and that experience showed as he guided NSW around the park, scoring a solo try early in the second half and kicking three goals.
Even though they won’t be stepping into the top line State of Origin series any time soon, the Blues’ impressive performance would have tempted NSW coach Ricky Stuart, who was an interested onlooker, to crack a smile.
Brisbane winger Aaron Whitchurch showed great composure to open the scoring for the Maroons in the ninth minute off an excellent stabbing grubber from Ben Hampton.
Sydney Roosters prop Kane Evans was one of the standouts for the Blues and scored the try of the match in the 24th minute.
The 192 centimetre talent side-stepped his way through the Maroons defence before sprinting past fullback Lachlan Maranta on a 42 metre run to the tryline.
Maroons centre Edrick Lee put his team back in front with the former Australian touch football representative finding space from a scrum and running 80 metres to score. But it was NSW who took a 12-8 halftime lead thanks to a well-worked try to Chanel Mata’utia, who had endured a forgetful evening before then.
The Newcastle winger had spilled the ball twice, the first leading to Queensland’s opening try, but hit back just before the break when he accepted a short pass from centre Cheyse Blair and managed to get the ball down in the corner before crossing the sideline.
Siejka put his team further in front early in the second half when he beat three Queensland defenders on the way to the line and then converted for an 18-8 advantage and while Lee got a second to get Queensland back within striking distance, that was as close as they got.
Dual international and former Queensland Origin star Wendell Sailor took to Twitter immediately after the game to praise a few of the youngsters on show, including Siejka.
“What about Edrick Lee two tries, super young talent, lock him up @RaidersCanberra. Also Harry Siejka #class,” he posted.
Blues coach Dean Pay drafted former Origin greats in to speak to the players during the week, with Stuart trying to instill the feeling that Origin football is still alive in NSW despite Queensland’s dominance.
“He was very passionate about us being the next generation and the future of Origin,” NSW skipper Boyd Cordner said after the match.
“I think we got a lot out of that.”
Pay admitted to a few nervous moments watching his team defending the final plays, saying he, like most of the 5105-strong crowd, was expecting Queensland to have one final play up their sleeve.
“We’ve seen that in the past, them being four points behind and coming back to get us in the death,” he said.
