Rugby League: Champions ▾

Attendance: 38,217

Dead rubber -- New South Wales had already clinched a 3-0 whitewash, reversing 1995's result. New South Wales fielded an unchanged starting lineup across all 3 games this series, a first. Queensland staged a comeback from 15-2 down; in the final seconds Mark Coyne appeared to score off an Allan Langer cross-field kick but was ruled offside. Several derived summaries gave conflicting scorelines (16-14, 18-15) that do not reconcile against any scorer breakdown; rugbyleagueproject.org's 15-14 does reconcile and is used here. Queensland's own player-of-the-series award for 1996 (era-name 'Wally Lewis Medal,' now retrospectively the Ron McAuliffe Medal) went to Allan Langer.

Scorers

New South Wales	Tries: Ettingshausen; Mullins Goals: Wishart (2/2); Johns (1/2) Drop goals: Fittler
Queensland	Tries: Coyne; Dallas Goals: Carne (3/3)

Teams

New South Wales			Queensland
1	Tim Brasher	Fullback	Wendell Sailor	1
2	Rod Wishart	Wing	Willie Carne	2
3	Andrew Ettingshausen	Centre	Mark Coyne	3
4	Laurie Daley	Centre	Steve Renouf	4
5	Brett Mullins	Wing	Brett Dallas	5
6	Brad Fittler	Five-eighth	Dale Shearer	6
7	Geoff Toovey	Halfback	Allan Langer	7
8	Glenn Lazarus	Prop	Tony Hearn	8
9	Andrew Johns	Hooker	Steve Walters	9
10	Paul Harragon	Prop	Andrew Gee	10
11	David Furner	Second Row	Brad Thorn	11
12	Dean Pay	Second Row	Gary Larson	12
13	Adam Muir	Lock	Billy Moore	13
Substitutes
14	Steve Menzies		Matt Sing	14
15	Jamie Ainscough		Adrian Lam	15
16	Jason Croker		Jason Smith	16
17	Jim Dymock		Owen Cunningham	17
Phil Gould		Coach	Paul Vautin

Match officials

Referee

David Manson

Data last verified: 11 August 2026.

← Game 2 · All games, 1996 State of Origin

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