Queensland Maroons Dominate Second Half to Win State of Origin II, Force Decider

Queensland has ignited with 36 points in the second half of State of Origin II to beat the Blues 44-24 at the MCG and send the series to a Lang Park decider.

The Maroons trailed 12-8 at half-time, but had a little momentum after scoring the final try before the break to stay within reach.

It turned out to be the first strike in an almighty run for Queensland, with 24 straight points and 36 in total after half-time, which marked the most prolific half of football in Origin history.

Captain Cameron Munster was at his influential in a vintage Origin performance, winger Selwyn Cobbo scored a hat-trick in a sensational outing, while halfback Sam Walker was named player of the match after kicking a perfect 8/8 conversions.

"We've got some freaky players in our team and we've got some good outside backs. Makes me and Sammy [Walker] look good," Munster told ABC Sport at full-time.

"He's outstanding, Sammy, and he's got a bright future ahead of him in a maroon jersey. And Tommy Dearden's still to come back, so I might be missing out soon."

Walker opened the scoring for the Maroons with an early penalty goal, but the Blues scored off the subsequent kick-off when prop Tom Flegler dropped the ball, collected by NSW debutant Mark Nawaqanitawase who offloaded to centre Kotoni Staggs for the 7th minute try.

Nawaqanitawase would score the first of his two tries in the 21st minute, when Nathan Cleary collected a his own grubber kick off a ricochet, before flinging a big cut-out pass to his winger.

Queensland would score its first try six minutes later, when interchange Trent Loiero finished off a wonderful passage of attacking rugby league.

Down 12-8 at half-time, the Maroons were near flawless to start the second half.

Queensland scored three tries in a nine-minute blitz to break the game open.

Another knock-on off a kick-off led to Nawaqanitawase's second try in the 60th minute, as Queensland held a 26-18 lead with a quarter remaining.

But the Maroons would have another three-try surge in nine minutes, while Staggs was sent to the sin bin for a high shot on Ponga to ensure the Blues could not make another sensational comeback.

"I thought we handled a fair bit of adversity in that first half really well," Queensland coach Billy Slater said.

"Off the back of that, we went out into the second half and really chased our game.

"We got it right in the first 15-20 minutes of the second half and that put us in a really good position."

Leading 1-0 in the series and up by four points at half-time, NSW coach Laurie Daley said his side "missed the mark" when trying to close out the series win on Wednesday night.

"Highly competitive in the first half. Second half, we missed the mark on a lot of things. Disappointing, very disappointing," Daley said.

"I think there was a lot of errors and they just sort of compounded. Queensland were very good, as we always know they will be.

"We're going to have a real hard look at ourselves and come up with the answers, which I'm sure we will."

The Blues have only ever won three deciders at Lang Park.

However, the Blues were triumphant in 2024 the last time State of Origin was decided in a Brisbane Game III.