By ED CARRUTHERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Queensland captain Cameron Munster has lumped praise on his players for weathering a dramatic late surge from New South Wales, adding that his team had to turn up for under-pressure coach Billy Slater. 

But after sealing the 26-24 victory and levelling the series, an emotional Munster appeared to drop the F-bomb live on Channel 9’s coverage of State of Origin II.

Munster had noted how the Maroons had copped flack in recent weeks for their lacklustre performance in the series opener, with Slater taking a lot of flack on the team’s behalf.  

‘Queenslanders love being underdogs,’ the Melbourne Storm star said reflecting on the match. ‘We shot ourselves in the foot (in the second half) but we just worked hard for each other.’ 

‘Obviously the pressure and all the criticism that Billy Slater’s been getting for us, I’m just glad we played for him tonight.

‘He loves Queensland, loves this group, there’s been a lot of speculation in the media and we had to turn up for our coach tonight and we f**king did.’

Slater has been embroiled in a war of words with Aaron Woods this week, after the former New South Wales prop branded him a ‘grub’ last week. 

But on Tuesday, the Queensland coach came under fire after he appeared to shoot a barb back at Woods, in which he mentioned Paul Green, who tragically died in 2022. 

Slater has since apologised to Green’s family and to the public over the comments. 

But today his team stepped up, but there’s still plenty to work on, according to Munster. 

‘[We] Had a really good first half,’ Munster said. 

‘Second half, just shot ourselves in the foot. Can’t afford to give the team like that so much ball…

‘But in game three, we need to be a lot better in certain positions, and. We can’t afford to give them piggybacks.’

More to follow…  

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Emotional Queensland captain Cameron Munster drops F-bomb on live TV as he backs under-pressure coach Billy Slater

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