Time increase a winner as players break Origin intensity barriers

Queensland's 24-18 win in Friday night's epic women's State of Origin encounter smashed last year's intensity levels, according to Telstra Tracker.

An extra 10 minutes of game time at Sunshine Coast Stadium saw the total distance covered across the paddock increase by 15 percent on the corresponding clash at North Sydney Oval last year.

Players from both sides averaged approximately 500 additional metres compared to data from 2019.

Opposing centres Lauren Brown and Tiana Penitani led the way with 6.2 kilometres apiece, while Julia Robinson came in a close third with 6.1 kilometres.

Maroons star Tamika Upton and NSW winger Shanice Parker came in next best with 5.9km recorded in yardage with Upton's two-try performance in particular making plenty of noise in the win.

The additional time in play did little to the players' match fitness with a 25 percent increase in intensity recorded across the 70 minutes as efforts from both sides were on par with each other.

Intensity across the whole game was near identical when comparing this year to last 95 metres per minute on average for both sides – the same as last year – but the additional time saw no lapse.

Returning Maroons hooker Brittany Breayley topped the metres per minute statistic with 107 every 60 seconds.

The 29-year-old produced a 44-minute first-up stint before returning to the game in the latter stages after sitting out the NRL Telstra Women's Premiership in October.

NSW halfback Melanie Howard closely followed Breayley on 105m/minute with Brown (103) and Robinson (101m/minute) in the top three.

Also joining the top five was 44-year-old veteran Kylie Hilder, who showed age is no barrier when it comes to match fitness with an average 101 metres every 60 seconds during her 57-minute performance.

Brown and Penitani were also level with 43 high-speed efforts each (sprints over 15km/h) to lead the way over Parker (42), Upton (40) and Jess Sergis (40).

The overall highest for high-speed efforts last year was 29, highlighting a significant increase in efforts across the paddock this year.

Well-contained by the Maroons out wide, Sergis reached a maximum speed of 29.2km/h in the loss - 0.2 short of her game-high efforts last year - but was eclipsed in efforts from Upton (29.9km/h) and Botille Vette-Welsh (30.2km/h) overall.

Vette-Welsh's performance from a speed perspective was equally as impressive as Upton's long-range try in the first half with the NSW custodian only returning from a hamstring injury less than a month ago.