Record-breaking Maroons coach Mal Meninga admits his team was “conservative” in its approach to the first game of this year’s State of Origin series, forewarning of an all-out attacking assault for Game II in Sydney.

RECORD-breaking Maroons coach Mal Meninga admits his team was “conservative” in its approach to the first game of this year’s State of Origin series, forewarning of an all-out attacking assault for Game II in Sydney.

The Maroons are on-course for an unprecedented sixth consecutive Origin series win, set up by their gusty 16-12 come-from-behind win at Suncorp Stadium in the first game of the series.

But like with Game I, the return match carries a large dose of the unknown for Mal and his team, with Blues coach Ricky Stuart forced into a raft of changes due to injury and form.

The Maroons, by comparison, have made only minor adjustments with Mal predicting the biggest change to the Queensland team will be to its attitude and game plan.

“I think it is fair to say we were fairly conservative with the way we went about our footy in Game I,” Mal said.

“That’s not to say we didn’t have passages of really good footy, but we expected a real tough, grinding, arm-wrestle of a game, and that is exactly what we got.

“The first game in any Origin series is always like that, so we knew what to expect. We also knew that Ricky would have the Blues fired up to produce the best performance they could muster to underline that this was a new chapter for them.

“We knew all those things. We knew it was going to be a tough affair, and it was a terrific performance from the boys that they knew what a tough task was ahead of them and they still went out and got the job done.”

But Mal said the Maroons were expecting a far more open game in Origin II, which could allow Queensland’s attacking stars like Darren Lockyer, Johnathan Thurston, Cam Smith and Billy Slater to unleash.”

“I think in the second game we will expect to see the referees be far less lenient in regards to the slowing down of the play the ball area, and I think that will really open the game up for both teams,” Mal said.

“Obviously there was a little bit of leeway given in that area in the first game, and that is why it turned into such an arm-wrestle. But I think we can expect to see a different game in Sydney, and certainly we will be preparing the team with that sort of match in mind.”