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For seven of the 17 New South Welshmen lining up for the Blues in Origin II, a return to Suncorp Stadium on June 22 will bring up terrible memories of last year's decider.

Skipper Paul Gallen, Josh Morris, Michael Jennings, Aaron Woods, James Tamou, Josh Jackson and David Klemmer all faced the might of the Maroons in Game Three and were flogged by a record 52-6 scoreline.

14 Queenslanders from that game will return to the scene of the crime and for Morris it will prove motivation in what is a must-win game for NSW with Queensland 1-nil up in the series.

The veteran Bulldogs centre also said the Blues cannot rest on their laurels from their work in training. 

"A lot of the boys remember what happened last time and haven't forgot that so I'm sure we'll all rip in this week," Morris said. 

"You can't take the prep for granted either.

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"It was probably one of the best preps we had leading into it and they came out and put a show on us so we have to make sure that it counts out there.

"It definitely hurt and it's something we don't want repeated," he added. 

"There's definitely motivation there to go up and win it, and we must win.

"Everything is on the line."

While they pegged the scoreline back significantly in Origin I a fortnight ago, the Blues still didn't do enough to earn the win after falling 6-4 at ANZ Stadium.

Wests Tigers front-rower Woods believes the Blues need to avoid the hype surrounding the Maroons potentially winning their 10th Origin series in 11 years.

"If we worry about ourselves, and not get caught up in the hype of worrying about them, and play the best we can then it'll go a long way to us winning," Woods said. 

"Queensland had a lot of ball on our line in the first 20 minutes and we did well to do defend that but there were a couple of times where we could've passed the ball and we didn't.

"So if we can get our execution right for Origin II we will be a lot better for it."

For Morris, the memo was simple for Game Two – "score more points". 

"We had many chances in Game One so we need to make sure we're finding those last passes and getting over the try-line," Morris said. "Giving those four [last-start] debutants (Matt Moylan, Josh Mansour, Dylan Walker and Adam Reynolds) their first taste, and for them now knowing what it's all about, it'll give them some confidence," he added. 

"They'll only get better as the series goes on."

This article first appeared on NRL.com

 

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