A record television audience of 2.3 million watched Queensland claim the first State of Origin match on the Nine Network last night.



The audience was the largest for a State of Origin game since OzTam ratings began.



The previous record of 2.1 million was set during the 2008 decider match.





Regionals will be out soon to push the tally well over 3 million mark.Still RL dominates every other code .......

Great figures and it wasn't even close to a classic. Bring on the next two

The Hairy Jock wench that is SuBO got 15 million on Sat night- and that wasn't a classic.



Bring on Big Bro

It was classic enough!







Where were you watching from?

Sometimes it's embarrassing to be British









My front room. Was a good game but not one that will be remembered for years.

And I thought it was your backroom!







Yeah which country are you in lol?

Catalonia. Watched it online.

Constant refrain of 'This is the pinnacle of our sport' from Fats et al, which is fair enough until we can put out a GB team that can beat the Aussies around 50% of the time. NZ's vctories don't seem to be doing it, perhaps because they're undercut by the one-off thumpings they seem to always endure mid-season.

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jun/04/andrew-symonds-australia-world-twenty20-sent-home2,300,001.[/url

one off games are meaningless, it's who takes home the trophy that counts. Isn't that waht the Aussies have been ramming down our throats every time we win one game in a series?

mind you i bet that tv viewing figure doesn't count that handful

of people wathing via online streams

You can watch it online?

apparently so i've heard

And also all the people in pubs and clubs.They don't actually count them

either, and also how would they know how many people watching in house holds they don't actually go and knock on their door and ask, so in reality the figures could be twice as much and we would never know !





The total ratings end up being approx 3.5 million.Well done Australia.





The other codes don't even come close, we wipe them off the map like we wipe our asses.

An 'interesting' simile.

Or, in reality, a lot less.

I went to my mates house and there was 40 of us .So in reality you could be wrong.

The actual reality is the figures are worked out by extrapolating from a sample audience. In other words, they are estimate figures, but are taken as fairly accurate.

I just hope Setanta survives long enough to show me 2 & 3.

They're a guide. That's all.