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| - New South Wales, spearheaded by scrum-half Nathan Cleary, crushed Queensland 34-10 in Sydney on Wednesday to take rugby league's State of Origin series to a decider next week. Cleary's immaculate kicking game -- and attacking energy from first-time skipper James Tedesco -- lifted the Blues after last week's disappointing 18-14 loss to the Maroons in the series opener in Adelaide. NSW dominated the match, scoring six tries to two, and carried on with their 18-4 lead at half-time to have the game in their keeping well before the end. The series heads to Brisbane next week for the decider, with Brad Fittler's Blues bidding for their third consecutive series victory against Wayne Bennett's transitional Queensland team. Cleary had come in for criticism after the opening loss, but he was in inspired form Wednesday -- constantly turning the Queensland defence and pinning them down with his kicks early in the tackle count, and kicking five goals from seven attempts. "I thought everyone had a pretty good game and our forwards laid the platform for victory," he said. "We weren't happy where we finished our tackle sets in Adelaide and we wanted to work together and find spots on the field where we got our best kicks in play. I thought we did that pretty well tonight." Queensland suffered an early setback with the loss of influential stand-off Cameron Munster with a head knock, but they were first to score. Young winger Xavier Coates pulled off an acrobatic one-handed put down just inside the corner post to give the Maroons an eighth-minute lead. But for the rest of the opening half it was all NSW. Cody Walker, preferred to Luke Keary at pivot, stepped inside Kurt Capewell's tackle to score -- and was followed six minutes later by new skipper Tedesco, who polished off a left-field passing rush to cross. Cleary converted both tries for a 12-4 lead which was extended when Coates spilled a high Cleary kick, and from the NSW scrum winger Josh Addo-Carr left two tacklers stranded when he stepped inside to give the Blues an 18-4 half-time advantage. The Blues effectively killed off the contest with tries by Jack Wighton and Daniel Tupou early in the second half to open up a 28-4 lead. The Maroons could not repeat their second-half in the Adelaide opener when they stormed back from 10-0 down at half-time to upset the Blues. rsm/fox
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