So much so that opposing coach Brad Fittler compared him to a lunar eclipse.

Maroons coach Kevin Walters was left to rue the fact that he could only call on one Inglis, figuring that a team of 17 of him would have been more than enough to reverse the 22-12 scoreline in game one.

In a team firmly in the rebuilding stage following the retirements of alltime greats Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith and the absence through injury of Billy Slater, Inglis simply had to step up.

The look of fierce determination on his face as Advance Australia Fair rang around the MCG on Wednesday night showed the 31-year-old was up for the fight.

Huge hits on Tom Trbojevic and Nathan Cleary proved it.

The second-half bone-cruncher on Cleary - one of 11 debutants in the Blues' lineup - clearly impressed Fittler.

"The one where Greg came in and it looked like a lunar eclipse," he said.

"The light would've went away and he would have went 'wow'."

Walters said he could not have asked for more from the man chosen to replace Smith as captain in what was his 31st Origin match.

"I thought Greg was our best player," he said.

"If we had 17 Greg Inglises we probably would have won the game.

"But unfortunately we only had one."

Queensland five-eighth Cameron Munster drew special inspiration from Inglis's first-half shot on Trbojevic, just a couple of minutes before Valentine Holmes raced away for the Maroons' opening try.

"We needed it from our captain and I thought he really delivered tonight," said Munster.

"It's really exciting when you see your captain doing that for your state."

Inglis insisted he couldn't have asked for any bigger effort from his young team.

"But unfortunately it just didn't happen for us in the second half," he said.

"Key moments, that's what Origin is all about.

"Credit to New South Wales - they did it better than us."

Australian Associated Press