Following golf’s first ever State of Origin Rugby League showdown read a full match report from inside the Queensland PGA Pro’s team.

After a solid build-up, a sharp warm-up (which saw several players, due to fitness, doubting what in the lord’s name we were thinking) and some inspirational words from Captain Chris Wood, the boys were ready.

The match started brilliantly for the mighty Queenslanders,
I sliced through some meek defence from Paul Maiolo, to find Blair Riorden with
a beautiful pass. Riorden then streaked away to score the opening try and the
two of us headed straight to the bench gasping for air.

From that point the rest of the first half was what can only
be described as an insipid performance from the Queenslanders. Even former
Rabbitohs and Cowboys NRL player Justin Loomins couldn’t carry the side.

Half time came and brought with it a score line of 18-4 to
the NSW PGA Pros. Some honesty was delivered by Captain Wood who used words
such as, weak, pathetic, lacking in direction, unfit and devoid of any skill,
but enough on the NSW Origin team for Wednesday night, back to the game at
hand.

Coming back to the field we had a plan, use more subs and
score more than the NSW PGA Pros.

Again we got off to a good start to the half, with Riorden
streaking away for his second try, making the score 18-8, we were back in it.

That was until Mitch Brown from NSW injected himself in to
the game.

To say we were blown off the park is an understatement, with
NSW scoring at will and obvious fitness issues hampering the Queensland side.

This was highlighted when Tim Hart chipped over Maiolo’s
head and by the time he ran around Maiolo to chase it, Callan O’Reilly had
already scored at the other end.

A strong Kiwi contingent was called into assist the
Queensland side, Sean Roach was tradesman like, Kieran Muir the clear ball player
and Blair Riorden scored all of Queensland’s points.  

This was not lost on the Blues side, with them pointing out
to us that the final score was in fact NSW 42 versus New Zealand 8.

All in all it was a fantastic afternoon, and hopefully the
start of a yearly event. Go the Maroons on Wednesday Night.

Team Queensland:

Chris Wood (C)

Mitch Jacobson (VC)

Adam Blyth

Tim Hart

Paul Hayden

Blair Riorden (NZ)

Keiren Muir (NZ)

Sean Roach (NZ)

Justin Loomins (Former NRL Player)

Brendan Wright

Team New South Wales:

Callan O’Reilly (C)

Paul Maiolo (VC)

Brendan Smith

Troy Cox

Mitchell Brown

Robert Weinert

Harrison Russell

Joel Graham

Brock Sampson