Queensland captain Tamika Upton has vowed to 'find where her rhythm is' and inject herself more into the play after the Maroons went down in the opening game of this year’s series.
The visitors were on the back foot from the first set at Newcastle with forward Makenzie Weale ruled out with a head knock, but Queensland were up for the challenge, scoring the opening try thanks to replacement forward Otesa Pule.
However, a fatigue set in, the errors and penalties took their toll, with the captain putting the onus on herself to improve after making three handling errors in the 11-6 loss.
“I think the first game of the year … that's where you've kind of got to find where your rhythm is and unfortunately, I didn't find it in that first game,” Upton said.
“It was more of a back-and-forth grind and I'll be hoping to inject myself a little bit more in the second game.
“We know it's a do or die, we've been in this situation before.”
The most-watched game of rugby league this year, while the series opener did see a number of errors across the park as players, Upton said that on the field, the speed of the game added to the
“Some of the speeds in that game; it was probably the fastest game of footy I've ever played, and I feel like we say that year upon year,” Upton said.
“It's getting faster and faster …
“Same with the New South Wales girls, they're going to heights that are pretty unmatched at the moment with speed, so we know we can build on that.
“(And) like we said, we've got a whole job to do this week to get ready for Game Two.”
Upton was also looking forward to playing at Suncorp Stadium to help welcome in the Magic Round crowd. However, coach Nathan Cross said the side had addressed their losing record at the ‘home of rugby league in Queensland’, where they are yet to win a game under the Origin banner.
“New South Wales were trying to do it at McDonald Jones, and they did that and (now) that's our job now for Suncorp for next week,” Cross aid.
“It holds no fears, we're actually really excited about it, we just haven't been able to get it done at Suncorp.
“But I'm really confident that we can have a great week of training, that if we execute, we can come away with a win.
“Certainly that's the outcome that I spoke to the girls about in our team review … we know that next Thursday night at 9.30 we want to walk off the field as winners.
“We're all about our process now for the next seven days and making sure we get that right, and then I believe the outcome will take care of itself.”
Match: Maroons v Blues Women
Game 2 -
home Team
Maroons
away Team
Blues Women
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
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