Were the Blues unfairly treated? Here are all eight penalties blown against them in the first half
With eight shrill whistles, Ashley Klein officiated one of the most one-sided halves in modern State of Origin history.
NSW coach Laurie Daley refused to go near the 8-0 halftime penalty count, telling reporters 'I can't tell you what I honestly think, so I won't say anything', no doubt with the NRL's edict on referee criticism in mind.
Origin penalty counts have been broken down into first and second halves by statistic providers from 2000 onwards.
Only the game-three dead rubber in 2016, won by NSW, has delivered as lopsided a count as Wednesday's Perth affair, with the Blues on the desirable end of a 9-1 first-half count that finished 12-3 by full-time.
Klein's work in Queensland's 26-24 upset has already been howled down south of the Tweed as a contributing factor to the narrow loss. For the record, NSW were awarded six penalties to two in the first half at Suncorp Stadium a few weeks ago under Klein as well, with the final Origin I count 9-6 in favour of the Blues.
In Origin II, ruck-speed statistics and a second-half swing in momentum to NSW led to something of a balancing up, though the final 10-2 penalty count ranks as the second-most lopsided of the past 25 years.
It will naturally come under the microscope from NRL head office, as any one-way penalty count should.
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