State of Origin Game 1 - Did Queensland have an extra player in referee Shayne Hayne?

The annual NSW vs Queensland State of Origin game was on last night and no-one can deny that it was a rip snorter!

However, I can't be the only one to think that something very fishy was going on with the decision making process in the last ten minutes of the game by referee Shane Hayne.

Shame Hayne

NSW were 4 points up and Queensland were on the comeback. It was a tense time (particularly for NSW fans who haven't seen too many wins recently and suddenly, inexplicably, all the referee decisions were going Queensland's way. Let's got through them here..

71 minute mark : NSW are on the offensive ten metres from the line and the ball is knocked out of a NSW player's hands by a Quneensland player. DECISION: Knock on NSW. MY VERDICT: Debatable. In match games this would quite often be given as 6 again to the attacking team but as a commentator pointed out on the night officially it is a "lost ball".

72 minute mark: A Queensland player tries to throw a quick offload, it bounces off another Queensland player's hands forward into a NSW player's hands. DECISION: Penalty to Queensland. MY VERDICT: WTF????

79 minute mark: With less than one minute to go a Queensland player Justin Hodges loses the ball as he is getting up to play it. Play is called to a halt for an injured player nearby. DECISION: Queensland to play the ball when play recommences. Bizarrely, it is not Hodges who plays the ball. He is allowed to go back into his rightful position in the line up while Greg Inglis plays the ball. MY VERDICT: Too weird to be just a bad decision.

79 minutes and 50 seconds: With ten seconds to go, Jarod Hayne at marker appears to push the man playing the ball away and grabs the ball. DECISION: Penalty to Queensland. MY VERDICT: At the time, I thought it was awrong, but I must admit, out of the heat of the moment and watching replays this morning, the ref may have been right. It was a HUGE call at that moment in the game however.

So what can we surmise from all this? There is no doubt in my mind that Queensland were given every opportunity to do what they are expected to do every year - as Ray "Never let a cliché go unsaid" Warren so tediously stated at least two times near the end of the game - "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat".

This time however it did not come off for them. Now it's up to NSW to hold on in there home ground.