Queensland clinched a sixth straight Origin series with a 34-24 victory over New South Wales in game three in Brisbane.
Inglis crosses twice as brave Blues are beaten yet again
Queensland made sure skipper Darren Lockyer enjoyed the perfect finish to his State of Origin career with a 34-24 win over New South Wales in Brisbane.
The Maroons raced out to a 24-0 lead in front of a raucous crowd of 52,498 at Suncorp Stadium on their way to clinching an unprecedented sixth straight series triumph.
Looking to finally end their rivals' run, the Blues threatened a comeback when they crossed twice in the closing stages of the first half of the decider.
However, they proved unable to spoil Lockyer's swanswong as the Maroons - who had also won game one at the same venue - ran out comfortable winners.
In the end the final margin of victory did not do justice to Queensland's dominance, particularly in a tremendously one-sided first 25 minutes.
Greg Inglis broke the deadlock with the first of his two tries after 15 minutes, the centre getting on the end of Jonathan Thurston's clever grubber to the left corner that caught the Blues horribly short of numbers.
Sam Thaiday added a second, accepting Billy Slater's short pass to touch down, and soon after Cameron Smith darted over from dummy half.
The game looked to be up for the Blues when an innocuous-looking kick from Lockyer bounced horribly off Anthony Minichello's knees and straight into the path of Jharal Yow Yeh, who hacked the loose ball forward before gleefully diving over the line with it in his grasp.
Bounced back
But, to their credit, the Blues bounced back from their early mauling - they were forced into no less than five drop-outs - to raise hopes of a comeback.
Minichello made amends for his earlier error by taking Luke Lewis' pass to score next to the uprights and then, almost straight after, Mark Gasnier's burst past Thurston allowed Akuila Uate to step inside Slater and slide over.
The double strike wobbled Queensland a little and they suffered a further blow after 56 minutes when the influential Thurston badly damaged his left knee in a collision with team-mate Ashley Harrison.
Their concerns were eased, though, when yet another set move involving the Lockyer-Thaiday-Slater triumvirate saw the latter of the trio ghost over.
Inglis then powered his way over and, with Thurston off the field, Smith kicked the conversion to make it 34-10, effectively ending the game as a contest.
The Blues did close the gap thanks to an eight-point try from Jarryd Hayne - Jamie Soward getting two kicks at goal after Smith was penalised for dropping his knees into the scorer - and Greg Bird also touched down before the final hooter, finishing off a flowing team move that had started from deep.
However, conceding twice couldn't take the gloss of a fine night for the Maroons and their retiring leader, who lifted the Origin trophy for a final time.
