Blues officials were privately fuming with the Maroons’ heavy-handed treatment of Burton in the scrap as his teammates tried to defend a possible Daly Cherry-Evans try 30 metres away.

Burton’s former Panthers teammates Api Koroisau and Isaah Yeo rushed to help the 22-year-old once they were aware of the fight in back play,but by that stage Fa’asuamaleaui had already held down Burton as Gagai kept fighting.

Burton and Gagai were sent to the sin bin,while Fa’asuamaleaui stayed on the field.

“[But] it’s obviously a s--- go to see your teammate held like that. It was two on one and anyone would say that wasn’t a fair go.”

Daniel Tupou

“That’s footy,” said Burton,sporting a swollen cheekbone. “At the end of the day,what happens on the field stays on the field. We’ll just leave it at that. You don’t want to get sent off,and it obviously affects the team. The ref controls the game and that’s his decision.”

Asked about the incident,Blues winger Daniel Tupou said:“It all happened so fast. I didn’t even see it until it was on the big screen.

“[But] it’s obviously a s--- go to see your teammate held like that. It was two on one and anyone would say that wasn’t a fair go. But in their backyard,they’re going to get that energy and hype. It was a bad look. But what do you do? Stand up for him and continue the game.”

Said Brian To’o:“We don’t like seeing the boys being outnumbered by many. We just wanted to get in there to help Burto and break up the fight.”

The flashpoint seemed to galvanise the Maroons,who kept the Blues scoreless in a pulsating second half as they laid siege to the NSW line after a string of individual errors.

Queensland match-winner Ben Hunt conceded he had no major issue with seeing fighting back in the Origin arena.

“It’s kind of a funny one these days,you turn around and they’re throwing punches and you think,‘They’re definitely going off and we’re going to have to work harder for a bit when we’re down to 12 players’,” Hunt said.

“It gets the other boys a bit fired up. As a half you get a bit worried. You go around telling the forwards to be smart and not buy into it. But that’s what Origin is about,it’s great stuff. I like to see it.”

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