In a week in which LeBron James showed his greatness in a variety forms, as a rugby league fan I feel rather grateful to be witnessing rugby league greatness on such a stage, on such a frequent basis. For those of us who aren't from Queensland or New South Wales and stay clear of pledging our allegiance to either state, we get to just back and enjoy the wizardry of some of the greatest rugby league players to ever grace this planet, along with the team who follow their lead.

If you're a NSW fan, you'd be foolish to come to any dramatic conclusion about your team's performance. There were many moments in which NSW shot themselves in their collective feet both on the field and up in the coaches box, however it's hard to accept angst towards Laurie Daley and the NSW players for another State Of Origin series loss, their 10th in 11 years.

All the discussion around Daley's future, the quality of NSW and weird discussion about State of Origin being 'boring' thanks to Queensland's dominance completely ignores what Queensland do and who is in their team. This is a team that has both Jonathan Thurston and Cameron Smith in it, there's quality throughout this Queensland side which in combination with Thurston and Smith makes them extremely difficult to defeat. 

The class of Thurston and Smith was on display for all to see last night. I lost the plot when Smith slid out of dummy half, slid to his left where he threaded a left-footed kick 50m downfield, perfectly cutting a hole between a retreating Josh Mansour and Matt Moylan who only started his pursuit of the footy 20m in-field. Smith executed this kick perfectly and while there are hookers in the NRL who can pull of a kick of similar quality, none would do it so perfectly on such a stage, at such a crucial time in the game.

Shout out to technology because the slow-mo replays of Smith's kick only made this even greater. It was rugby league beauty, a graceful act in a brutal arena, by a bloke who finished with 47 tackles - he would have had 40 tackles by then.

I see no difference between the greatness of Smith and that of Thurston, hence NSW kinda just have to cop it on the chin as Queensland have two players who play at such a level. As Sam Thaiday crashed over the NSW try-line, with blue jerseys wrapping him up on the penultimate tackle of that set, I wondered if that wasn't the ideal situation. Instead of a quick play-the-ball to set up for a kick, which is usually required to break down a defence as strong as NSW's, Thaiday was held up and had retreat 10m back, allowing NSW to take a breather, to observe Queensland's attacking set up for their last tackle and to line up as organised as possible on their try-line.

Smith went to Thurston on the right. In previous State Of Origin series' we had seen and then heard numerous times about how dangerous Queensland's left edge was, led by Thurston with many tries finished by Darius Boyd. Here - as was the case in game one - Thurston moved across to the right where there were even numbers, NSW had everything covered.

Well, kinda. As Thurston received the footy, Moylan slid across behind NSW's defensive line to cover the kick and he had it covered if it was any other half who was going to kick that footy. Thurston did have much room to work with and he put a grubber just out of Moylan's reach, as close to the sideline as possible but obviously the sideline was working against him. Perfectly weighted, the sideline was never an issue and Dane Gagai (who was immense and I'll explore his game in Debrief #2) only had to burst 5 metres down the sideline and score. 

That went down on the right and Thurston then went back to his favoured left edge where he combined with Boyd. If we're talking about greatness, then Queensland's team must be mentioned because it's a mark of a great team/set up that Boyd was usually finishing these sort of moves off, yet here he was as a fullback setting up Corey Oates to score. Greatness, Queensland had different pieces in different positions, yet the move was ruthlessly executed.

Again, NSW had matched up nicely with even numbers down their right edge. Again, there appeared to be little hope for Queensland as Thurston got the footy and with Greg Inglis hitting a short-ball line, Thurston blindly threw a pass to where he expected ... scratch that ... to where he knew Boyd would be. There was a small window for Thurston to pass as Inglis wasn't much further than a metre away from him, somehow Thurston got the ball behind Inglis and into Boyd's path while disguising it all brilliantly.

I was in shock, because Thurston had disguised it so well. He didn't shift his eyes towards Boyd, he didn't roll through the same second-man set up that we see in the NRL. Thurston rolled through a move with a high degree of difficulty that NSW had no idea was coming, let alone how to defend it. 

Soon, I'll offer some observations from game two. As I said though, I'm grateful to have witnessed such rugby league players, wizards working their magic on a footy field. A State Of Origin footy field isn't a place for mortals like you and I, it's reserved for a certain level of toughness that few blokes have and that even fewer blokes thrive in. Smith and Thurston tick those Origin boxes, they compete physically and let's not forget that they aren't the biggest blokes on a field full of rugged brutality. 

The way in which Smith and Thurston handle the physicality of Origin and the general play of Origin in which they guide their team around the park is good enough for me. To be able to throw dazzling plays in on top of that pushes these two up into rare-air and on a rainy Thursday here in Auckland, I'm still in awe.