Harsh lesson NSW learned from women’s Origin heartbreak

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Harsh lesson NSW learned from women’s Origin heartbreak

Vice-captain Tiana Penitani Gray admits NSW lost focus on their goal of State of Origin glory last year, as the Blues women vow not to repeat the same mistake in 2025.

For the second year running, NSW began the women’s Origin series with a commanding game-one defeat of Queensland in Brisbane, and are returning home in the box seat to close out the series.

But last year NSW fluffed their lines in game two, giving up their half-time lead and falling 11-10 in Newcastle, before they were thrashed in Townsville in Origin III.

Ahead of Origin II in Sydney this Thursday, the Blues are intent on making sure the Origin shield does not slip between their fingers for a second year running.

“Everyone’s really conscious of that, how we were feeling after last State of Origin’s loss,” five-eighth Penitani Gray told AAP.

“No one wants to feel that again, so everyone’s really locked in.”

The final 10 minutes of Origin II proved series-defining last year as Queensland came from behind and sealed victory when Lauren Brown iced a field goal in the driving rain.

One of 10 players from last year’s game-two loss who will line up on Thursday, Penitani Gray said NSW knew how to prevent history from repeating.

“To make sure that doesn’t happen again, what happened last year, we need to stay focused for the full 70 minutes,” she said.

“We really dropped our focus in the last 10 to 15 minutes in game two last year, and that’s what took us to game three.

“We probably had a lapse in concentration game one (this year), so we’ll need to tidy that up.”

NSW are aiming for a more disciplined start to game two after the Maroons scored their first try on the back of a seven-tackle set last week, and their second following back-to-back penalties.

“In the first half we had a lot of yardage piggybacks,” hooker Keeley Davis told AAP.

“We cleaned that up in the second half, but we’ll definitely want to improve on that from the get-go this game.

“We were still a little bit clunky in attack, although we had some really good moments. I think we probably started a little bit frantic, so we can definitely look to improve there too.”

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