We rate all the Queensland Maroons players after their 32-8 win over New South Wales in Origin Game III.
1. Billy Slater – 8/10
A standard Billy Slater performance. Near faultless, he was busy in attack and ran a brilliant try.
2. Darius Boyd – 7/10
Scored a late try to put the game out of NSW’s reach and tested the Blues defence all night.
3. Greg Inglis – 7/10
Made some excellent runs down the left and looked dangerous every time he touched the ball. His best game of the series by far.
4. Justin Hodges – 8/10
He made his usual strong runs from dummy half and had a hand in both the Slater and Guerra tries. Excellent performance.
5. Will Chambers – 7/10
Solid debut from Chambers despite clearly coming under attention from the Blues. Made little errors, but was taken from the field after a shoulder charge.
6. Johnathan Thurston – 6/10
Definitely hasn’t been his best Origin series, and he bombed a near-certain try early on. Made up for it with a ball to set up Boyd’s try.
7. Cooper Cronk – 8/10
Was a clear leader on the field and scored a try as well as setting one up for Guerra. A typically strong Origin performance from the Melbourne Storm man.
8. Jacob Lillyman – 6/10
A quiet night, but made some good runs late on.
9. Cameron Smith – 7.5/10
Excellent out of dummy half and was typically solid throughout.
10. Nate Myles – 7.5/10
A hard-working performance which produced 15 hit-ups for 128 metres and 31 tackles.
11. Aiden Guerra – 8/10
No doubt a huge part of the Maroons’ future. Scored a well-deserved late try.
12. Sam Thaiday – 7.5/10
Worked hard and provided the spark in attack that Queensland so dearly needed. Laid on 28 tackles, too.
13. Corey Parker – 8.5/10
An easy choice as man of the match, Parker showed why the Maroons missed him in Game 2. Off-loaded superbly as well as having 20 hit-ups for 189 metres with 32 tackles. Match-winner.
INTERCHANGE
14. Daly Cherry-Evans – 7/10
Excellent performance off the bench, did everything coach Mal Meninga wanted him to do and more.
15. Ben Te’o – 6.5/10
Had an impressive impact in attack, but have away a silly penalty on Hodkinson. His impact wore off as the match went on.
16. Matt Gillet – 5/10
Didn’t see much action.
17. Dale Taylor – 4.5
There were serious question marks over whether Taylor is up to Origin level and it showed last night. Only saw action in the second half and made far too many errors.
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