Johnathan Thurston Accidentally Unlocked The Most Difficult Achievement In Rugby League

It might have cost Queensland the game, but on balance it was probably worth it.

In Soccer AM’s popular crossbar challenge segment, a whole soccer team will take turns trying to hit the crossbar of the goal by kicking a ball from the halfway line. Most of the time nobody hits it.

Johnathan Thurston’s final conversion attempt in State of Origin III was from closer to the posts – only about 13 metres out and another 10 or so to the right – but what he did carried level of difficulty several thousand magnitudes higher.

Thurston badly shanked his kick in such a way that it careened into the left upright, pinballed off the crossbar and into the right upright, before finally bouncing back into the field of play.

https://vine.co/v/57bmxQleQFJ

While in the context of the game the kick attempt was unsuccessful, this was an incredibly uncommon sight, perhaps one of the game’s rarest feats. Most rugby and league kickers will go their whole careers without ever hitting all three goalpost bars, not even in training.

For Johnathan Thurston, who can now add this to his long list of career achievements, it happened on rugby league’s biggest stage.