The 1980 State of Origin game between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues was the inaugural match under the newly configured rules by which a player would represent his "state of origin", i.e. the state in which he was born or in which he started playing registered first grade rugby league football. It was the third match of 1980's annual interstate series between the Blues and the Maroons and was only allowed to go ahead because the first two matches and the title were already won by New South Wales. The first two matches were played under the existing residential selection rules (i.e. Blues players could only be sourced from clubs south of the border and the Maroons only from north of it) before the single experimental match took place. Game 1 was played at Lang Park in Brisbane and won by NSW 35-3. In Game 2 at Leichhardt Oval in Sydney, the Maroons put up more of a fight but were defeated again, this time in Sydney, 17-7. Prior to the experimental match, the State of Origin concept was derided by the Sydney Media.
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