The Morris boys haven’t enjoyed much success in the Origin arena but the gutted NSW twins are primed to continue their dose of double trouble for Queensland in 2013.
In their first interstate match together, Josh and Brett Morris starred for the Blues in the 21-20 series-deciding loss at Suncorp Stadium.
Bulldogs centre Josh produced the two most bewildering plays of the epic encounter by chasing down Greg Inglis to save a certain try and then leaping over the top of Darius Boyd for a 70th-minute equaliser.
Brett was hardly outdone after replacing Akuila Uate for game three.
The St George Illawarra winger single-handedly sparked an 8-0 lead for NSW when he ran over Sam Thaiday for a 60m break before shrugging off Cameron Smith for the opening try five minutes later.
But at the end of the day, after losses in his previous five Origin matches, Brett had to settle for a sixth straight Blues defeat.
In contrast, father Steve tasted victory in both of his appearances in the mid-1980s.
“It certainly hurts; so close,” Brett said. “We hung in there and hung in there. It’s pretty gutting to lose by a point.
“You can’t say much else.”
Even though he can’t tell them apart, NSW coach Ricky Stuart heaped praise on the identical twins’ efforts in a further sign they put a down payment on selection next year.
Josh, who contained Inglis brilliantly in the opening games in Melbourne and Sydney, stressed the Blues were heading in the right direction to breaking the Maroons’ dominance.
“Whilst it (was) a pretty down dressing sheds we have put a lot of pride back into the NSW jersey, I think we have to stick together and stick solid and wait to next year to have everyone firing again,” he said.
“We showed pride throughout the series. We were so close in Melbourne and we came back in Sydney to get the win, and most people would have written us off at halftime (down 16-8) but we showed a lot of fight.
“It was just a great kick by Cooper (Cronk) to win the game.”
No wonder Queensland were bamboozled by the twins, they have Stuart seeing double. The shattered coach congratulated Brett for his brother’s late try.
“Sticky has a bit of trouble getting us right so I just laughed when he said `that was a great piece of individual brilliance’,” Brett said. “I just thought `mine wasn’t that good’.”