Kent: Blues heading for an ambush

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ON TUESDAY Queensland's spiritual leader, the Reverend Billy Moore, said the Blues were "on the cusp" of winning the Origin series, in the best position they had been for years, and with that little statement of overkill the ruse was finally up.

All the language heading into Wednesday's game has an air of inevitability.

NSW is "on the verge ..."

The Blues "are set to end ..."

DCE TRAINS STRONGLY DURING CAPTAIN'S RUN

Greg Inglis and Johnathan Thurston during a training session. Source: News Corp Australia

"Queensland's eight year Origin streak ...", spoken about as if it is an absolute, a number to grow no higher.

If Rev Moore is talking like all the Maroons can do is turn up and play their part in NSW's coronation, then as sure as bananas are served in Bowraville the Blues are heading for an ambush.

The poor old Blues are trying hard to stay clear eyed.

Over the weekend NSW vice-captain Robbie Farah revealed there was a different mindset in camp this preparation. Aware they have been caught planning their parade before, Farah told Triple M that they were approaching Wednesday's game as if it was a decider.

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Forget about there being a third game in three weeks. The Blues know how difficult it will be to win that game and want to make the most of the opportunity they earned on Wednesday night with their tremendous win over Queensland at Suncorp Stadium last month.

Wednesday's approach is all or nothing.

Should the Blues expect an ambush from the Maroons in game two?

Only problem is, Queensland has been too quiet. Oh, some will argue the daily injury updates and debate over Daly Cherry-Evans and Billy Slater and Greg Inglis, and whether Ben Hunt will find himself in the game and was Brent Tate really put in a dangerous position, all add up to a whole lot of noise.

But it's just white noise, really. Not a bit of it means anything once the game starts.

More importantly, when was the last time we heard from Johnathan Thurston? Or Cameron Smith?

Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston have been very quiet in the lead up to game two. Source: News Corp Australia

For Blues fans, that is terrifying. While the conversation has been going on Thurston and Smith sit in the eye of the storm, barely distracted. They have had nothing more taxing demanded of them than to prepare for their game. There is no worse place NSW could ask them to be.

Thurston's performance in the final 30 minutes of Game I was every bit as dominant as Jarryd Hayne's game for NSW, he just fell on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

History remembers the winners, and all that.

In the first 50 minutes Thurston had 16 touches. In the final 30 he had 41.

Most players are hard pressed to have 40 possessions in a game. Thurston did that in the final half-hour as he demanded the ball time and again and taunted a Blues defence that was heroic in its execution, which it needed to be.

QLD SHOULD STOP UNDERDOG ACT

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Smith was playing injured most of this time, his ankle hindering him.

No player has the control to his game like Smith, though, and no player regularly has a greater influence on the result.

Often we hear the good judges talk of the Smith's greatness and for all us laymen here, conditioned to watching the great ballrunners, we struggle to pick up the subtleties they speak about.

Smith controls the entire game from dummy-half. The speed and strategy all lie with him. And he is good enough that if you game plan to shut him down, closing down the routes he likes to use, he adjusts his game to find another way.

Few players in the game can change their entire game, on the run, to fool their opposition.

Billy Slater. Members rides a bike during a Maroons training session. Source: News Corp Australia

On top of that, Slater will be his very best. He hurt his knee in last year's World Cup and the professional diagnosis was he was that he was gone for six weeks.

This was a terrible inconvenience for Tim Sheens and his Australian side, as the World Cup final was a fortnight away.

Yet Slater not only got himself right, but scored Australia's first try with one of those high leaps and then went on to score another as he starred for Australia.

He can play with injury.

This is what the Blues contend with on Wednesday night, an opponent who for all the stones being kicked after Game I still matched them at two tries all, and who go into game two with a spoonful of hope, more than a dash of underdog, and the prayers of Rev Moore.

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