Three tries in eight second-half minutes helped New South Wales storm to a 28-4 victory over Queensland in the series opener of the State of Origin at the Suncorp Stadium.
In a high-octane match, both teams had to prove their stamina in a relentless 80 minutes of rugby league which was end-to-end before the Blues eventually took control to seal game one of the three-match series.
The visitors took the lead after six minutes when prop Andrew Fifita busted two Queensland defenders before brilliantly offloading to James Maloney, who crossed the whitewash and then added the conversion to put the Blues 6-0 up.
The Maroons replied through Corey Oates when he was picked out by Cooper Cronk's inch-perfect kick to reduce the gap to two points but that was as close as the hosts came.
Mitchell Pearce extended the Blues' lead on the stroke of half-time after collecting James Tedesco's brilliant cut-out pass to put New South Wales 12-4 ahead at the break.
Influential half-back Pearce suffered a nasty jaw injury early in the second half but despite the man disadvantage, full-back Tedesco powered over from dummy half to further the Blues' advantage on 52 minutes.
Man-of-the-match Fifita was the quickest to react to Justin O'Neill's knock-on as he stretched the gap to 24-4 with a deserved try before Jarryd Hayne touched down in his first Origin match since returning to rugby league following a spell in NFL on 60 minutes.
Tedesco, who was impressive throughout, denied Matt Gillett with a superb last-ditch tackle before stopping Dane Gagai seconds later to keep the Blues' 24-point advantage intact.
Centre Josh Dugan also dislodged the ball out of the Aidan Guerra's hands as the Queensland second-row was poised to cross the whitewash late in the match to secure a dominant opening win for New South Wales.
