Rugby league-NSW beat Queensland to send Origin to a decider

MELBOURNE, June 17 (Reuters) - New South Wales sent the State of Origin series to a game three decider with a thrilling 26-18 victory over Queensland in front of a record crowd of 91,513 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday. Tries from Michael Jennings, Josh Morris, Aaron Wood and Josh Dugan along with 10 points from the boot of Trent Hodkinson proved enough to tie up the series after Queensland won the opener 11-10 in Sydney last month. "I'm just really proud of the boys, we stuck to our plan and really hung in there," New South Wales captain Paul Gallen said. The Maroons of Queensland, who won eight straight series until New South Wales triumphed last year, scored tries through forwards Matt Scott and Matt Gillett as well as Kangaroos back Greg Inglis. They will consider they have cause for grievance ahead of the decider in Brisbane on July 8 after a second try for Inglis in the 67th minute was called back for a knock-on. Inglis scooped up the ball after Mitchell Pearce had lost it in the tackle and raced 90 metres for what he thought was a score that would have given Queensland back the lead. "Would have been nice to go back to Brisbane with the series wrapped up but all credit to the Blues, they were too good for us tonight," said Johnathan Thurston, who kicked six points for Queensland. The Blues made the most of the reprieve with Dugan cutting through the defence for a converted try two minutes later that gave his side an eight-point advantage and the momentum going into the final 10 minutes. The crowd was the biggest for a State of Origin match, bettering the 88,836 who watched game two of the 1999 series at Sydney's Olympic Stadium. (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney, Editing by Ed Osmond)