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BRISBANE - Queensland centre Greg Inglis provided the spur for an act of Origin redemption with last night's 30-0 annihilation of NSW at Suncorp Stadium sending this year's series to a decider in Sydney next month.
Embarrassed in game one, Inglis turned in a performance which will go
down in Origin folklore, his brutal left hand fend shutting the Blues out of the contest and keeping alive Queensland's bid for a hat-trick of series wins.
The Blues were never in the contest and will need to regroup quickly with game three at ANZ Stadium on July 2 suddenly looking the impossible dream after becoming just the second Blues side after the 1995 team to be shut-out in an Origin contest.
Inglis set up two first-half tries and had the Blues dumbfounded all game, the Melbourne star turning the table on Blues opposite Mark Gasnier after being embarrassed in game one.
"Back home, we obviously talked about our start and we didn't put a foot wrong in the first half or even the whole game," man of the match Inglis said.
"It was good, Gaz got one over me and now I've got one on him and we take it down to game three.
"It's quite difficult winning down there, we've only won one game down there the past few years, hopefully we can keep our performance up and take it on to the next one."
Inglis waited just seven minutes to make up for his game one shocker, with Gasnier the victim of a fend which left him lying hapless on the turf.
But it had nothing on the facial Inglis delivered to his Melbourne teammate and Blues debutant Steve Turner seconds later as he sent Darius Boyd over for a memorable debut try.
Boyd must have been thinking all his Christmas' had come at once sitting on the wing outside Inglis, with the rangy centre beating a pair of defenders again to set up his thankful teammate for a double.
It could easily have been three for the Broncos youngster inside half an hour after Johnathan Thurston delivered a beautiful pass which Inglis juggled with immaculate fingertip control, only for a Brett Stewart cover tackle to bring the movement to an end.
Nonetheless a penalty goal on the next play extended the lead, a dose repeated another two times either side of the break to make it a comfortable 18-0 to the home side.
NSW had nothing in reply, the Peter Wallace-Greg Bird halves combination ineffective behind a badly beaten pack.
Blues coach Craig Bellamy claimed the Maroons were wasting their breath with their pre-game 'whinging' about referee Tony Archer's game one performance, but it paid almost immediate dividends with Queensland receiving a penalty on just the third tackle of the game for a slow play the ball.
After blowing just six penalties in the series opener, Archer whistled 16 last night with the Maroons getting the advantage 9-7 and benefiting from the up-tempo style.
Having established a match-winning lead, it turned into party mode over the final 20 minutes with Ben Hannant and then Israel Folau crossing for tries.
Last night's margin matched their best ever effort.
"Course we can," NSW prop Craig Fitzgibbon said when asked if they could bounce back in game three.
"It's going to be hard. Sometimes you're not good enough on the night and we weren't but we'll go back home for game three and give it a good lick.
"It sucks. We certainly got outplayed.
"Good kick in the arse for all of us I think."
Queensland 30 (Darius Boyd 2, Hannant, Israel Folau; Johnathan Thurston 4 con, 3 pen) bt New South Wales 0.
- AAP