New South Wales' victories in the first two games under the "state of residency" selection rules were, however, the last matches of this kind to ever be played as the following year the Origin concept was fully embraced.
The match[citation needed] featured a stunning comeback by the Maroons, an all-in-brawl, a 95-metre try by Eric Grothe, Sr. and the second consecutive man-of-the-match performance from Queensland centre, Chris Close.
In a column in the Sunday Telegraph, NSW and Australian centre Steve Rogers wrote: "And while we are on the State of Origin match, I hope it is canned this year.
With rugby league officials from NSW still not convinced of the State of Origin format, the 1980 model was repeated in 1981 when the first two matches were played under the old residential selection criteria.
Beetson later told the real reason he pulled out of the game was that he had lost the motivation to keep playing representative football after being overlooked for the test series against France.
Selectors then chose young Western Suburbs player Terry Lamb as his replacement and rushed him to Brisbane on the afternoon of the game.
This was against the wishes of coach Ted Glossop who wanted to move Steve Rogers to the halves, Phil Sigsworth to the centres, bring in Garry Dowling as fullback and play Lamb from the bench.
In the ensuing melee, Lewis sought out Terry Lamb and gave him a rugged welcome to interstate football with a number of uppercuts.
This was the second of Grothe's tries for the game, the first came after 13 minutes when he swooped upon a wayward pass by Maroons' hooker Greg Conescu and raced 95-metres down the touchline, easily out pacing his opposite number Mitch Brennan and Qld halfback Ross Henrick before busting through the cover defending tackles of Brad Backer (coming from the opposite wing) and Colin Scott to score in the corner to give the Blues a 5–0 lead after Cronin's sideline conversion.
A simple run-around move saw Sterling pass to Price who sent his winger bursting through a weak Chris Phelan tackle to score under the posts.
However, Queensland's defence stiffened, and they took back some momentum just before half-time when winger Backer grabbed a try in the corner off a long pass from McCabe to make it 15–5.