Laurie Daley on New South Wales halves: “I thought they were terrific. I thought they really combined well. Mitch played with control, Hokko did the job we wanted him to do. They will be there for game two, there’s a headline for you.”

Trent Hodkinson on halves combination: “I thought we combined well, shared the role nicely, another week together will help. We just need more opportunities down their end in that second half. I thought [Pearce’s] kicking game was great, he was just putting it up and giving us time to chase. It worked well. We’ll take some confidence out of it.”

Hodkinson on his kick for touch: “Yeah it was a shocker, the old ball grip got me, the sticky grip got me. I didn’t hit it good, it stuck to the hand a bit too long but that’s no excuse, I’ve got to get it out. I was pretty happy they didn’t score off that set.”

Johnathan Thurston on Beau Scott: “He’s in teams to do a job [on the halves] and whenever I’ve come up against him he’s always there to try and nullify what I do. I thought he got me there once or twice but I think we were happy to sneak away with win in the end.”

Thurston on Inglis: “We know the quality of player that he is, he’s probably disappointed with the way he performed, but I thought defensively he was pretty strong and he’ll be back bigger and better over the next couple of weeks.”

Mitchell Pearce: “It was just disappointing those crucial errors at the start of the second half didn’t allow us to get the field position in the second half. I don’t think we really had any good ball at all and didn’t put ourselves in a position to get points which against a quality team like that makes it tough to win a game.”

James Tamou on the halves: “They definitely did [combine well], they might get a bit of flak here and there but we know as players they played well and they can hold their heads high. They can take that out of it and bring it into the next game because they’ll be there for Game Two.”

@The81stMinute Player of the Year points:
3 Sam Thaiday
2 Josh Dugan
1 Mitchell Pearce