Origin scrum call no excuse for Blues loss: Paulo

Junior Paulo claims the Blues’ inability to win the middle – and not him being held back in a scrum – was the reason for NSW’s loss on Wednesday.

NSW prop Junior Paulo has refused to pin blame on being held back in a scrum that led to a Queensland try as an excuse for the Blues’ loss.

Queensland took a 1-0 lead in the State of Origin series, courtesy of a 16-10 win in Sydney on Wednesday.

The Maroons hit the front foot when Daly Cherry-Evans took the ball off a scrum and waltzed through unchallenged to score under the sticks in the 48th minute.

Replays appeared to show Paulo was being held back by the Maroons front row, but despite NSW captain James Tedesco appealing to referee Ashley Klein the try was given.

“You can’t make excuses,” Paulo said. “They obviously checked it. Teddy went and questioned the ref and a try is a try.

“That’s not why we lost the game, we had plenty of opportunities, we just have to be more desperate there.”

Referee boss Gerard Maxwell was still reviewing footage on Thursday, but the NRL were happy with Klein’s performance and the decision to award the Cherry-Evans try.

Paulo put more stock in NSW’s inability to get on the front foot in the middle as the key reason for their defeat.

Payne Haas was the only NSW forward to run for more than 100 metres, while the Maroons had five forwards who hit treble figures.

Part of that was the Blues’ choice of rotations, with Paulo and Cameron Murray benched at the expense of Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Liam Martin respectively come kick-off.

Paulo was told of the move on Tuesday. 

He has played just three games off the bench for Parramatta in as many seasons but on Wednesday he was unable to replicate the form which has made him one of the game’s most devastating front-rowers.

“Whatever role I had I thought it was going to work well for us,” he said.

“They (the Maroons) certainly wanted it more and I thought their middles generated quick ruck speed and they were able to capitalise off the back of that.

“We obviously didn’t win that battle even though our back five were tremendous getting us on the front foot.”

By: George Clarke, AAP