BBC SPORT | Rugby League | NSW take Origin opener

Phil Gould's team were on the scoreboard inside five minutes.

An electric burst from Hodgson was halted just short of the line but Matthew Gidley cashed in on a two-man overlap on the next play.

Queensland hit back within 10 minutes, creating a spare man themselves in Lote Tuqiri, who crashed through Johns' cover tackle at the flag.

The NSW skipper was leading by example in defence and attack and had two hands in his team's second try, after 24 minutes.

Persistent offending

First he slid a kick through the Queensland line to send Jamie Lyon charging towards the visitors' line.

And then he popped up to keep the move alive and give Lyons a scoring pass as he was bundled into touch.

Three minutes later, Johns grabbed a well-deserved try of his own, courtesy of another clean break from Hodgson.

And he delivered two more closing blows with the boot, kicking a penalty and a drop-goal to give NSW their biggest half-time lead in Origin history.

Between those efforts, Queensland ran into yet more trouble when captain Gorden Tallis was sin-binned for persistent offending at the play-the-ball.

Full-back Brett Hodgson scored one and was involved in three NSW tries
NSW's Brett Hodgson had an outstanding debut
The Maroons survived the NSW onslaught in their skipper's absence but when they shipped a fourth try on the hour, the game looked all but over.

Again, Johns and Hodgson did the initial damage, with only a crunching tackle from Darren Lockyer denying the latter man a score.

But NSW had a spare man on the next play and another snappy pass from Johns gave Timanu Tahu a run-in on the right.

Johns then limped off with ankle trouble to a standing ovation from the Stadium Australia crowd.

But he could leave his team happy to cruise home without him.

Trent Barrett added a drop-goal to make the score 26-4 before Hodgson scored the try of the night.

With the NSW scrum back-pedalling 10 metres from its own line, the debutant picked up and raced 90 metres to score before converting himself.

Teams:

New South Wales: Hodgson, Tahu, Lyon, Gidley, Moodie, Barrett, Johns (capt), Bailey, Buderus, O'Meley, Simpson, Kennedy, Ricketson.
Replacements: Anasta, Fletcher, Hindmarsh, Vella.

Queensland: Lockyer, Schifcofske, McKenna, Smith, Tuqiri, Berrigan, Langer, Webcke, Campion, Buttigieg, Tallis (captain), Civoniceva, Carlaw.
Replacements: Walker, Webb, Gee, Doyle.

Referee: Bill Harrigan (Australia)