Queensland champion Darren Lockyer hailed his side's belief after celebrating his record-equalling State of Origin appearance by laying on the match-winning try in a 16-12 victory over a gallant NSW at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night.

With the Blues hitting the lead for the first time in the 69th minute, Lockyer responded with a superb inside ball for a flying Billy Slater to snatch the game back for the home side.

"There was still 10 minutes to go and no one was putting the white flag up," said Lockyer, who joined Maroons great Allan Langer on an all-time high 34 Origin games.

"We just said we've just got to pick our energy up and there's still plenty of time to score points.

"And I think we all believed what we were saying."

The 34-year-old maestro had already mercilessly teased the Blues with his kicking game before icing the cake with eight minutes to go.

Queensland showed yet again they are never beaten in a pulsating Origin encounter that ended with a traditional punch-up started by Corey Parker and Greg Bird.

The Blues had scored twice in four minutes to lead 12-10 in the 69th minute, Ricky Stuart's new era in charge looking to have begun after a courageous NSW side repelled relentless starts from the Maroons in both halves.

In the end, Queensland scored three tries to two through Johnathan Thurston, Jharal Yow Yeh and Slater to have the 52,144 crowd in raptures, Thurston booting two from four.

For the Blues, Mitchell Pearce and Michael Jennings scored tries with Jamie Soward kicking two from two.

"Billy and I just sort of picked the hole inside Beau Scott," Lockyer said of the match-winning four-pointer.

"Billy's pretty quick there and he's done that a fair few times over his career."

Queensland will head to ANZ Stadium next month with a 1-0 lead, a deficit the Blues have not recovered from since they last won a series under Stuart in 2005.

The new Blues boss praised his side's guts, calculating they had faced an extra 15 sets of six in defence.

"I was disappointed with a couple of parts of our game but, gee they're courageous," Stuart said.

"It's amazing how we were even still in the game.

"I thought they were extremely tough."

Maroons coach Mal Meninga notched the most wins for a Queensland mentor with 12, bettering Arthur Beetson and Wayne Bennett.

The only sour note was a shoulder injury to centre Willie Tonga, who played on in an effort Meninga described as one of Origin's most courageous.

NSW would not have been disappointed to have gone to the break just 6-0 down after fighting their way back following Thurston's fifth minute try.

But a mistake from Brett Morris proved costly five minutes after the break when the winger failed to collect a Cooper Cronk grubber that bounced perfectly for Yow Yeh to score on debut and make it 10-0.

Thurston hit the upright with a 60th minute penalty goal attempt from in front before Pearce scored in the 65th minute following a Greg Bird bust, and it was 10-6.

The momentum was with NSW and four minutes later a set move saw Josh Dugan put Jennings into space and he dummied past Slater to score his first try of the season.

Soward's conversion giving the Blues the lead for the first time at 12-10.

But it took only three more minutes for Lockyer to lay on the match-winner for Slater.

"You expect that from those guys," Stuart said.

"That's what they're best at, the best players in the game."

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