After suffering humiliation the year before, the Queensland Maroons needed something special in the opening game of the 2001 State of Origin series.
Debutant Lote Tuqiri provided it…and then some.
Darren Lockyer parted the New South Wales Blues defence like Moses parting the Red Sea to put Tuqiri through.
The Queensland winger had his skates on and ran straight through before finding Lockyer in support with a magic ball to make it 6-0 after two minutes.
That Lang Park magic set up the series and, to a large extent, Tuqiri's brief but successful Maroons career.
"My first touch in Origin footy was unbelievable. The vivid memory I have is haring down the sideline and the crowd erupting,” Tuqiri recalled.
"Locky parted the ocean for me and Darren Smith created the gap by being the extra man.
"I stumbled to step the fullback because I was going too fast and tried to do a goose step but it ended up OK because the defender Mark Hughes stumbled as well… and then I found Locky. It got us off to a great start and we never looked back that night.
"It doesn’t get brought up that much but after that NSW raided our line and I stripped the ball from Matt Gidley in our own in-goal. After that first touch everything I did in the first half turned to gold and the 10 debutants played out of their skins.”
Tuqiri felt right at home in camp because he was one of nine Broncos players in the squad.
"As a result I wasn’t as nervous as I could have been but I had this enormous pride in being picked," Tuqiri said
"It was all pretty relaxed. We knew we had a job to do and the guys who played the year before were still stinging from their loss and that bomb throwing incident [when NSW players celebrated in Game III by synchronising a grenade explosion].
"Choppy Close was the team manager and he played a big part in us winning the two Origin series I played in, just with the way he spoke to us before the games. We were fully charged and went out there ready to kill."
The Maroons won that opening game of the 2001 series 34-16 and in the decider two months later Tuqiri was celebrating a 40-14 win at Brisbane's ANZ Stadium alongside a 35-year-old Allan Langer, who had returned from England to inspire Queensland to a famous series victory.
Tuqiri was born in Fiji but had become a keen student of Origin history well before 2001.
"I came to Australia when I was three and moved to Brisbane where I watched Origin games religiously," Tuqiri said.
"When we were kids we had free passes to the outer and I can still remember my cousin taking me to Wally Lewis’s last game in 1991 and that just cemented the passion and pride the Queenslanders had for that Maroons jersey.
"It is sad to say but back then if you were into playing rugby league then you were prouder to play for Queensland than Australia. That is certainly the way it was for me."
The Maroons were hammered 32-4 in the opening game of the 2002 series and Tuqiri was set to miss Game II after being hit with a grade-one dangerous throw charge.
Maroons power brokers came up with an ingenious plan to not name him and leave a TBA (to be announced) on the team sheet. Instead, Tuqiri served his suspension in the Broncos club clash with Wests Tigers and took his place in camp with the Maroons.
"Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Ross Livermore or whoever it was came up with a plan that has since been outlawed," Tuqiri grinned.
"I served my suspension in the club game and went into Origin camp but I never trained. It was probably the most relaxed Maroons week I ever had and I thought 'how good is this'. I did my own stuff in the gym and watched the boys train."
Tuqiri turned it on in the match with an 18-point haul that still stands as a joint individual point scoring record by a Maroon, an achievement he shares with Johnathan Thurston.
"So after having half the week off I came out and scored a hat-trick and a record amount of points. There might be a lesson in that," Tuqiri chuckled.
“I always had great memories playing with the Broncos at ANZ Stadium, or QEII as it was also known. The other great memory was Alfie’s return the year before when he came back from England and helped Queensland win the series."
Tuqiri’s last act in Origin football was missing a sideline conversion in the 2002 decider after Dane Carlaw scored at the death wide out to level the scores at 18-18. Tuqiri's miss didn’t matter one bit.
"There was a bit of pressure but I knew that if I missed it we would still win the series. That is the way the cookie crumbles but we still retained the shield,” Tuqiri recalled.
After six Origin games for the Maroons the next year Tuqiri started what was to be a stellar rugby union career with the Waratahs and Wallabies.
He returned to rugby league in 2010 with the Wests Tigers and the desire to represent the Maroons again was strong. Counting against him was the fact Queensland was in the midst of an eight-year winning streak.
There was an opening ahead of Game II of the 2010 series when Israel Folau announced he was defecting to the AFL.
"I would have loved to have come back to play for Queensland and I was close in 2010," Tuqiri said.
"I got a couple of phone calls because Izzy had announced he was moving across.
"I was playing pretty good footy that first part of 2010 at the Tigers. I wasn't expecting anything but knew I was in the reckoning when I turned up for Tigers training on the Monday and my coach Tim Sheens said 'mate, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in camp?'
"To ultimately not get called in was a bit heart-breaking to be honest."
Behind the scenes Maroons selectors were debating whether to keep picking Folau in the series. They initially weren't going to do so, but there was a change of mindset and Folau was retained and the door closed on Tuqiri's comeback.
"I played six Origin games and it was just great to be part of history,” Tuqiri said of his Maroons career. "There was that Alf game, my first touch, scoring that hat-trick and getting the record amount of points for Queensland.
"I also have the vivid memory Gordie [Gorden Tallis] lassoing NSW fullback Brett Hodgson over the sideline."
Tuqiri is not lost to the game in 2020 and true to form is giving back to the game that gave him plenty.
"I coach my son Samson's under 15s team at Easts Juniors in Brisbane so I am helping out there and really enjoying passing on knowledge to kids who are still at an age where they make a decision whether to keep playing rugby league," Tuqiri said.
Lote Tuqiri takes on a new role as junior coach
"Hopefully my influence can help them enjoy their footy without too much pressure."
Tuqiri has also enjoyed his work with emerging Maroons.
"The last couple of years I was a mentor to the Queensland under 20s and it is great to see a few of those young guys like Tom Flegler and AJ Brimson in emerging squads and on the cusp of being picked for the Maroons," Tuqiri said.
"I didn't do that much, but I played a small part in their journey and helping them realise what they can achieve in a Queensland jersey."
