NSW have made light work of Queensland’s Suncorp Stadium fortress once more with a 18-6 victory in the State of Origin series opener.

A year on from claiming the shield with a win in Brisbane under Michael Maguire, Laurie Daley’s Blues dominated without putting the Maroons to the sword until late in Wednesday night’s clash.

Not since 1997-98 have NSW won two straight games at Suncorp, while the win also marked their first three-game winning streak since 2005-06.

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Zac Lomax starred with two tries and a stunning assist but the groundwork was laid by the NSW forward pack, with man of the match Payne Haas among five running for over 100m to just two Queenslanders.

NSW started on fire with Mitchell Moses declaring their early dominance set them up for the win.

“We just knew we were on,” he told Nine.

Perhaps the only thing that went wrong for the Blues was their kicking game, with Nathan Cleary missing three conversion attempts and spraying a late shot at a field goal.

But NSW also overcame the controversial sin-binning of Brian To’o on half-time.

The winger brought down Queensland aerialist Xavier Coates over the try line, avoiding giving away a penalty try but not 10 minutes off the field.

Coates scored while To’o was off the field early in the second half but the four-pointer was sandwiched between a series of errors and penalties from the ill-disciplined Maroons.

The Blues’ go-forward quietened the capacity crowd in the first half, with the Maroons giving away three ruck penalties inside the first 10 minutes to gift the visitors field position.

“We’ve just got to be smarter. I feel like sometimes we played some dumb footy and gave them too many opportunities,” Cameron Munster said.

So low was Queensland’s level that NSW, according to Andrew Johns, only played at a “six or seven out of 10” while Cameron Smith said the Blues were in “complete control” from the start.

“This hasn’t been a 12-point win, they have been far, far superior,” Johns said.

“I think with the how much dominance they’ve had in the middle, they should have put 30 points on. I think they’ll be much improved in the second game.”

Moses and Nathan Cleary clicked in their first night together while Stephen Crichton shrugged off his early-week injury crisis.

The Blues could wrap up the series before even playing in Sydney, with Origin moving to Perth for the second game on June 18.

NSW have had big wins in Optus Stadium’s two previous Origin matches.

Queensland have never won the last two games of a series away from home after losing the opening match in Brisbane.

And they will need to have serious discussions about their spine and forward pack.

Harry Grant played below his best while Cameron Munster’s reunion with Daly Cherry-Evans in the halves failed to inspire the attack.

Pat Carrigan missed five tackles and had the Maroons pack’s only tackle break at half-time, compared to 12 from the Blues forwards.

- with AAP