The best thing NSW apparently had going for them wasn't at ANZ Stadium for Origin I.

He was on the other side of the world in a San Francisco hotel room, watching the match on an iPad in his jammy jams.

Reckon the game kicks off too late on the eastern seaboard of Australia? Try being Jarryd Hayne and watching it at 4am on the west coast of the United States.

That the Blues' lethal attacking weapon of last year – who averages more metres gained per match than any other player in Origin history – is chasing an NFL dream in the States instead of being in Sydney on Wednesday night was going to be a decisive factor in the eyes of many.

That thinking, though, discounted the attacking brilliance of Josh Dugan, who relishes the big stage as much as the man he replaced at fullback.

In the 20th minute, with Queensland leading on the scoreboard after Cooper Cronk had scored the opening try, the Dragons superstar showed he is also a game-turner.

It starts when prop James Tamou gets an arm free in a tackle and pops the pass, releasing Dugan down the middle of the field.

Players who usually excel at club level wet themselves at this point in an Origin. Dugan doesn't. He spies a player in a sky blue jumper from the corner of his eye. So he kicks ahead. Not just a kick, but a kick off the outside of his right foot.

Hear that? It's centre Josh Morris stampeding down the sideline.

The ball arcs his way, as if preordained. He pounces on it and scores, with Darius Boyd a nanosecond late to the party.

When Morris scores, he shoots an index finger at the sea of fans in maroon jumpers in the south-west corner like he's about to shoot them.

Boom!

He had every right to blow the smoke off his finger and put the gun back in the holster. The try was that good.

But glamour plays don't win Origins. They don't let you retain shields. Give me a game-winner over a game-turner any day.

When Dugan dropped the ball on the 30-metre line with 24 minutes to go, with his side leading 10-6 but doing all it could to invite the Maroons back into it, the match came alive again. Will Chambers' try in the corner locked it up at 10-10.

In the end, it took a Cronk field goal with six minutes to go to seal victory for the Queenslanders but it was never really that close.

Before 80,122 fans, the Blues were their own worst enemy.

The series now heads to Melbourne and the MCG, where Laurie Daley's side must win if it is to defend the title it claimed last year.

Ever since a 35-year-old, overweight and out-of-form Arthur Beetson trotted out on to Lang Park to captain Queensland in the first Origin, the interstate series has been perfect sporting theatre.

As the concept has exploded over three decades, and the interest has stirred, the narrative ahead of the series opener has become dull and predictable.

Queensland are favourites. No NSW are. Referee meetings. Redemption stories. Greg Inglis should be one of us. Blah blah. The acres of newsprint mean nothing when the game is on the line.

After taking control in the first half, NSW did all they could in the second to hand it back.

Halfback Trent Hodkinson failed to find touch on one occasion, and you suspect if Inglis hadn't spent three days in hospital with tonsillitis, he might've been strong enough to capitalise from close range.

As much as the Maroons had all the ball, and all the field position as the clock wound down, they could not land the killer blow.

Johnathan Thurston's 45-metre penalty goal attempt with 10 minutes to go didn't make the distance, before Cronk calmly slotted the one-pointer that put his side ahead.

Then NSW had one last shot. The ball went to Dugan. He relishes the big stage, remember. A game-turner.

His field goal attempt was rushed. It went wide.

Hayne turned off his iPad.