The Teams Named for Origin I—and the European Bowl News Around Them

A contemporary report published on 19 May 2010 listed the initial New South Wales and Queensland selections for State of Origin Game I and, in the same digest, reported Belgium’s withdrawal from the European Bowl. Those squad lists record the teams as announced, not necessarily the final line-ups.

Game I followed at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on 26 May. Cameron Smith had initially been named at hooker for Queensland, but Matt Ballin started after Smith failed to recover from an elbow injury suffered in the ANZAC Test. Brett Morris and Jamal Idris were the NSW newcomers, while Cooper Cronk and Dave Taylor made their Queensland debuts. Queensland won the match 28–24 and eventually completed a 3–0 series sweep, securing a fifth consecutive title and its first whitewash since 1995, according to the contemporary series account.

The May 2010 record at a glance

The sequence separates the announcement from the match-day record:

• 19 May 2010: An archived contemporary report listed the NSW and Queensland selections. It also carried a short international bulletin led by Belgium’s withdrawal from the European Bowl.
• 26 May 2010: Game I was played at ANZ Stadium. Matt Ballin started at hooker for Queensland instead of the initially selected Cameron Smith.
• Full time: Queensland defeated New South Wales 28–24 before 68,753 spectators. The Maroons led 12–8 at halftime and scored five tries to the Blues’ four, as recorded by the NRL match archive.

Belgium’s reported withdrawal left Norway and Malta in the European Bowl. That administrative news came from the 19 May article and therefore has a different evidential status from the match details preserved in historical results and team sheets.

The initially announced New South Wales squad

The 19 May report published the following New South Wales 17. It is the article’s record of the announcement rather than a reproduced governing-body release:

1. Kurt Gidley (captain)
2. Brett Morris
3. Matt Cooper
4. Timana Tahu
5. Jarryd Hayne
6. Jamie Lyon
7. Brett Kimmorley
8. Michael Weyman
9. Michael Ennis
10. Josh Perry
11. Trent Waterhouse
12. Ben Creagh
13. Anthony Watmough
14. Jamal Idris
15. Tom Learoyd-Lahrs
16. Luke Lewis
17. Brett White

Brett Morris and Jamal Idris were NSW’s two newcomers for Game I. Morris started on the wing, while Idris entered the match from the interchange bench. All 17 players in the announced list also appear in the final match record, although the two sources display them in a different positional order.

The archived article included personal criticism of Timana Tahu and an opinion about the relative importance of state and national jerseys. Those comments do not establish any selection or match fact and are not part of this record.

The initially announced Queensland squad

The same report listed the following Queensland 17:

1. Billy Slater
2. Darius Boyd
3. Greg Inglis
4. Willie Tonga
5. Israel Folau
6. Darren Lockyer
7. Johnathan Thurston
8. Matthew Scott
9. Cameron Smith
10. Petero Civoniceva
11. Nate Myles
12. Sam Thaiday
13. Ashley Harrison
14. Cooper Cronk
15. David Shillington
16. Neville Costigan
17. David Taylor

Reported 18th man: Ben Te’o.

This was Queensland’s selection at the time of publication. Smith was still listed at hooker, although Ballin ultimately wore the No. 9 jersey in Game I. Cronk and Dave Taylor went on to make their Queensland debuts from the bench.

Historical web pages may now display sponsorship or competition labels that postdate the match. Those current page elements do not, by themselves, establish the branding used in 2010.

Announced squad versus final Game I team sheet

The available records reveal one consequential personnel change between the 19 May Queensland list and the side that took the field. They do not provide an official transaction log covering every development during the intervening week.

State	19 May selection	26 May match-day selection	Explanation
Queensland	Cameron Smith at hooker	Matt Ballin at hooker	Smith did not recover from an elbow injury suffered in the 2010 ANZAC Test.
Queensland	Cronk, Shillington, Costigan and Taylor on the bench	Same four-player bench	Cronk and Taylor made their Queensland debuts.
NSW	Gidley, Morris, Cooper, Tahu, Hayne, Lyon, Kimmorley, Weyman, Ennis, Perry, Waterhouse, Creagh, Watmough, Idris, Learoyd-Lahrs, Lewis and White	The same 17 players	The displayed positional order differs, but the personnel match.

The final NSW interchange bench was Jamal Idris, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Luke Lewis and Brett White. Queensland’s bench was Cooper Cronk, David Shillington, Neville Costigan and Dave Taylor. The starting teams otherwise correspond with the announced personnel, apart from Ballin replacing Smith at hooker for Queensland; the historical match-day team sheet records both final line-ups.

The evidence does not establish an exact date for Smith’s withdrawal or Ballin’s call-up. It supports the narrower sequence that Smith was listed on 19 May, remained unavailable because of the elbow injury and was replaced by Ballin for the match.

Game I result and the short series epilogue

Queensland beat New South Wales 28–24 at ANZ Stadium on 26 May 2010, with 68,753 spectators in attendance. Queensland led 12–8 at halftime and scored five tries to NSW’s four.

The NSW try scorers were:

• Jarryd Hayne
• Anthony Watmough
• Jamal Idris
• Ben Creagh

Queensland’s tries were scored by:

• Darius Boyd
• Billy Slater
• Darren Lockyer
• Greg Inglis
• Sam Thaiday

Johnathan Thurston was the official player of the match.

Queensland followed the close opening win with a decisive victory in Brisbane and then completed the sweep in Sydney. The NRL’s 2010 results archive records the three results:

Match	Date and venue	Result
Game I	26 May, ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Queensland 28–24
Game II	16 June, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane	Queensland 34–6
Game III	7 July, ANZ Stadium, Sydney	Queensland 23–18

The 3–0 result gave Queensland its fifth consecutive series title and its first series whitewash since 1995.

International news: Belgium withdraws from the European Bowl

Alongside the Origin selections, the 19 May article reported that Belgium had withdrawn from the European Bowl, leaving Norway and Malta as the participating teams.

The article relayed comments attributed to Rugby League European Federation representative Danny Kazandjian. According to that account, Belgium considered itself administratively unprepared, while the deadline for admitting a replacement had already passed. The archived report also carried the brief Estonia and Catalonia updates, but the supplied record does not include a separate governing-body release confirming the explanation for Belgium’s withdrawal.

Estonia was said to be in a position to arrange its own matches. The RLEF was also reportedly discussing with Catalonia how best to support it. No subsequent Estonian fixtures or specific assistance for Catalonia were identified, so later outcomes cannot be inferred from the report.

This was a focused international digest attached to a larger article about the Origin selections and domestic results. It should not be read as comprehensive coverage of international rugby league activity in May 2010.

Record notes: confirmed match facts versus contemporary reporting

The evidence falls into three categories:

Announced selections reported contemporaneously. The initial NSW and Queensland lists, including Ben Te’o as Queensland’s reported 18th man, come principally from the archived 19 May article. They preserve what readers were told when the teams were announced.

Corroborated match-day facts. Historical match records support the final teams, the ANZ Stadium venue, Queensland’s 28–24 victory, the attendance of 68,753, the 12–8 halftime score, the try scorers and Johnathan Thurston’s player-of-the-match award. They also establish the principal difference from the earlier Queensland list: Ballin started at hooker instead of Smith.

Attributed international administrative news. Belgium’s withdrawal, the explanation offered for it and the short Estonia and Catalonia items depend on the archived report. They are useful as contemporary reporting but do not constitute a complete official account of European activity.

That distinction is important because the archived post combines reporting with personal commentary and contains an apparent score error elsewhere in its roundup. Unsupported judgments and uncorroborated competition scores should not be converted into settled historical facts.

The dated record is nevertheless clear: the 19 May report preserves the two Origin squads as initially announced, while the 26 May team sheet records the Smith-to-Ballin change and Queensland’s 28–24 win. Its European Bowl item preserves a useful international snapshot as well, provided the explanation for Belgium’s withdrawal and the limited Estonia and Catalonia updates remain attributed to that contemporary account.