St George have won a tough battle in slippery conditions in Wollongong tonight against a depleted Melbourne team. They Dragons scored three tries to two to run out 20-10 winners, after leading 8-2 at halftime.
RE-LIVE ALL THE ACTION WITH OUR LIVE BLOG
The Storm were forced to field a makeshift line-up. In addition to the expected absences of Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk, they had to deal with the late withdrawals of both Cameron Munster and Blake Green. 18-year-old halfback Brodie Croft was called into the team for his NRL debut, and showed promise.
Coach Craig Bellamy will be happy with the effort of his understrength team, but not their discipline. At one stage, the Storm conceded seven penalties in a row. St George had the majority of possession throughout the match, but both slides struggled with their completion rates in the conditions.
New signing Tariq Sims was a late inclusion for the Dragons on the bench, and was enthusiastic when he came on.
Just one first half try was scored, with Dragons’ five-eighth Gareth Widdop scoring after his chip kick bounced off Tohu Harris’ back and into his arms for him to race over.
The Storm scored the first second half try through prolific winger Suliasi Vunivalu, who crossed for the first of his two tries early in the second half to make the score 10-6. The Dragons responded with tries to Kurt Mann and hard-working hooker Mitch Rein, before Vunivalu scored his second on full-time.
20 year-old Vunivalu has now scored 13 tries in just eight matches to be the leading tryscorer in the NRL this season. What a find he has been for the Storm.
The loss brings to an end the Storm’s eight game winning streak, and sees Cronulla overtake them at the top of the ladder. The Dragons’ victory sees them move into the top eight .
Final score
St George 20
Melbourne 12
Stats
Try scorers (St George): Gareth Widdop, Kurt Mann, Mitch Rein
Top metres gained (St George): Jason Nightingale (160), Euan Aitken (141), Mike Cooper (140)
Top tacklers (St George): Mitch Rein (43), Joel Thompson (37)
Try scorers (Melbourne): Suliasi Vunivalu (2)
Top metres gained (Melbourne): Jesse Bromwich (172), Young Tonumaipea (145)
Top tacklers (Melbourne): Kevin Proctor (43), Dale Finucane (38), Kenny Bromwich (36)
The Roar’s NRL MVP votes
3 – Mitch Rein (St George). The hard-working hooker topped the tackle count with 43 and was rewarded with a try out of dummy half in the second half to seal the match for the Dragons.
2 – Jesse Bromwich (Storm). Captaining the team in the absence of Cameron Smith, he led from the front, making the most metres in attack (172), as well as coming up with 35 tackles.
1 – Gareth Widdop (St George). Tried hard to get the stuttering Dragons attack going, scored a try, was busy in defence, and his kicking game was solid.
Charles NSW
Guest
Not to worry we are getting the points to stay in the game Kurt Mann is the man with four tries in three games A big improvement from having started badly as fullback The Dragons have had a big pack of forwards who are throwing everything at that them in the last two games Coach McGregor is working quietly in improving the team and is a great coach despite what others may think
Dan
Guest
Agree. Looks like they were rested. They may have had slight niggles and this round best opportunity to let them rest up. Surprised to see Harris, Proctor, Finucane and J Bromwich not earn a week off as well (although lack of reserves probably made that impossible).
The Barry
Roar Guru
Another Widdop rebound kick (although they happen so often I'm starting to wonder if Widdop is the Walter Lindrum of rugby league rather than a lazy kicker who sprays them everywhere) and a try from dummy half out of the three scored. Against a massively weakened Storm team. Is that a sign of an improving attack?
At work
Roar Rookie
You speak the truth Vivalasvegan, especially your first point.
Charles NSW
Guest
Melbourne with their big pack of forwards, were throwing everything at the Dragons and not worrying about their penalty account to spoil the Dragons attack. The same went with Canterbury but the Dragons defence was much better this time.
Vivalasvegan
Guest
Alert... Storm fan... Two things... I can't think of another major sport that purposely rips the guts out of its comp each year, rewarding poorly performing teams whilst risking injury to the comp's draw cards... Mental. I like origin, but it is not the be all and end all it is talked about. This game was a shocker, but to be fair, Storm only missed two from Origin, although three other possibles were missing. Second point... Until everyone plays each other twice, and the draw is random, then it has the smell of pro wrestling... Teams playing twice before facing another team once...? Shambles...
Ken
Guest
But then again the Dragons had already played all of the established Top 4 teams by Round 6. All of them Away. Including the Cowboys and Broncos 5 days apart. They've drawn all of the Top 5 for two games this year. These two Origin rounds were quite favourable for the Dragons, not sure that I would say the draw as a whole has been great for them.
Ken
Guest
It was a strange one. I think when the TV did roll through it indicated that he didn't make it but Patten was very quick on the gun there and I'm not sure why either. Maybe he did actually roll it through and the tv got a different feed? Often you hear them calling details like players being offside before anything is even showing on TV. Just a guess, that one did seem very quick though.
Ken
Guest
The Dragons were on the end of a far more controversial one from Patten just 5 days earlier.
At work
Roar Rookie
I'd say it's unintentionally rigged Scott. Playing away, especially those 3 weeks in a row in QLD isn't ideal. But essentially being gifted much weaker teams (Cowboys & Storm) which would normally have no problems knocking you off is an unfair advantage to the Dragons.
Scott Pryde
Expert
I'm not sure the NRL draw is 'rigged' - the Dragons had a terrible start to the season because of the draw where they spent 5 of the first 9 rounds outside NSW.
LM
Guest
The teams which Patten used to play for seem to get these decisions pretty consistently.
LM
Guest
Damn right its unfair. I watched my Panthers get thrashed by a full strength Storm outfit, while the Dragons get handed 2 points against a team they would normally be lapped by.
Joe
Roar Rookie
There was a point I would like to make on this game and its on the bunker - not bunker bashing as it wouldn't have changed the result but Nelson Asofa-Solomona in the 77th minute scores a try which the ref who is standing directly in front of him when he grounds the ball sends it up as a try. The video ref Patten only looks at the moment that the ball hits the ground and comes back with no try. He doesn't roll the video through to where the ball ends up which is odd as Matt Chechin the on field ref is standing right in front of Asofa and presumably sees the ball end up over the line and gives a try. I don't get why the video ref would only look at when the ball hit the ground and not go beyond that to make his decision.
MAX
Guest
Ground capacity. As for Union... penalty, penalty ad nauseam into Oblivion several stations this side of Heaven.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Yes, you might be onto something there. Three pre-game injuries is ridiculous unless they got injured during the week and Bellamy didn't want to let on so that the Dragons wouldn't change their game plan to suit e.g. attack Young T at fullback which they did anyway with Marshalls 40/20. I guess if Dragons though Munster would be playing there would be less of a game plan to attack the fullback. Same as with Green being out the probably would have planned on him playing and being the major playmaker so would have planned their attacking the 6 on the last tackle.
Ken
Guest
Definitely unfair to the Storm with so many players missing, it wasn't a full-strength Dragons side either but the Storm side was clearly a step down from their usual quality. That Brodie Croft wasn't a bad replacement though at halfback, a couple of ordinary kicks but otherwise he put in a good account of himself - took the line on a couple of times and made some decent plays. It's the flipside of having someone in your team like Smith, lose him and your forward pack - still with multiple internationals last night - are just not the same. In regards to the 7 penalties in a row, note that these were mostly very straightforward. It wasn't bad luck, the Storm were purposely spoiling the play. Many teams are doing it this year at different times, especially against teams like the Dragons who are not respected for their attacking ability. I believe the idea is that if you keep slowing the play down, you'll nullify their chance of rolling over you for a try and they'll either eventually come up with an error or give up and take the two. It wasn't a brave effort, it was a tactic - it kind of worked too at the time. Richard Maybury: Reserves to the reserves to the reserves? It was bad but it wasn't that bad - there were 4 kiwi international forwards out there (admittedly 1 was playing in the halves) + 2 country reps + the star Fijian wingers. It was a disrupted team, with the spine ripped out, but the quality of player out there wasn't especially low.
Joe
Roar Rookie
Yep have to agree with your assessment of the game. Unfortunately synchronized swimming wasn't on but the Wallabies test was so was switching between the two. Unfortunately Wallabies were terrible as well and lost so was doubly disappointed by last nights games and results. : (
At work
Roar Rookie
Max what's the 23,000 figure you've posted refer to, TV numbers? I watched the Wallabies game instead, every time I turned over to the Dragons game I wanted to fall asleep.
MAX
Guest
The importance of having a reliable second string goal kicker was on display. Without Munster and Green the Storm's task was almost impossible. 7,568/ 23,000 does not read or look good. Sunday arvo would have been a better time slot. The game was a slog, but an enjoyable slog... far from boring. Get into it!