New South Wales centre Josh Dugan admits the Blues shot themselves in the foot on Wednesday night going away from the game plan that gave NSW a 16-6 lead at half-time.

The Blues somehow lost the match 18-16.

“Yeah we did and that was probably our downfall in the end, we knew they were a great side and they’ve got the players to claw back leads,” Dugan said immediately after the game on Channel Nine.

“I think we were a bit guilty of putting the cue in the rack and trying to defend the lead rather than play the footy that got us there in the first place.”

Dugan said the Blues went away from the plan that helped them thrash QLD in Game I and had them leading by 10 points on Wednesday.

“I just think we went away from the footy that was winning us the game, ploughing through the middle, playing fast and flat.”

“In the second half I think we tried to go around them a bit too much, and just tried to defend our lead rather than keep playing footy at them.”