A hat-trick from New South Wales winger Jake Mamo sparked the Blues to a 30-8 victory over Queensland in tonight’s Under 20s representative match at Sportingbet Stadium.
Mamo, who made his NRL debut in Wayne Bennett’s Newcastle Knights team earlier this year, scored two slashing tries with his blistering speed in the first half to give the Blues the ascendancy.
Fittingly, he scored NSW’s final try with another scorching effort down the touch line and was later named man of the match.
NSW skipper Kaysa Pritchard was presented with the Darren Lockyer Shield following his team’s impressive display.
The Blues’ victory extends their winning streak to three in the annual representative match.
Queensland started tonight’s match strongly, but lost vital momentum after failing to defuse two bombs that led to consecutive tries.
NSW winger Clinton Gutherson landed both conversions from the sideline to put the home team in front 12-0.
When Mamo scored his second and Gutherson slotted another conversion from the sideline, the Blues were in complete control at 18-0.
But Queensland put itself back in the match in the 39th minute when fullback Valentine Holmes fired a long pass out to John Folau, who forced his way over the line to cut the margin to 18-4 at half-time.
The first half wasn’t without incident, with both teams losing a player each to the sin-bin.
Queensland came close to scoring the opening try of the second half, with the Blues scrambling well to prevent Nene MacDonald from scoring in the corner.
The Maroons desperately needed to muscle up, but they conceded tries to Sione Mata’utia and Mamo as the game slipped out of reach.
However, Queensland never stopped trying and scored the final try of the match through Luke Bateman.
NEW SOUTH WALES 30 (Jake Mamo 3, Tyrone Phillips, Sione Mata’utia tries; Clinton Gutherson 5 goals) def QUEENSLAND 8 (John Folau, Luke Bateman tries) at Sportingbet Stadium, Penrith
Half-time: NSW 18-4
Man of the match: Jake Mamo
