Expert
The Melbourne Storm have completed a perfect 12 months, backing up their 2017 NRL minor premiership and premiership, crushing the Leeds Rhinos by 34 points to win the World Club Championship.
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A game which has been rarely played in Australia saw a big crowd on hand at AAMI Park in Melbourne as the Storm had to overcome a slow start and injury to superstar fullback Billy Slater.
The Queensland and Australian fullback didn’t take any part in the second half as a precautionary measure, but it’s not likely he will miss Round 1 of the season proper, which kicks off on March 8 with the Storm to play the Bulldogs in Perth on Saturday, March 10.
The Storm started the game slowly. Leeds opened the scoring through Ryan Hall in the ninth minute with the visitors running the ball on the last.
It was a trend which followed the Rhinos throughout the game, but eventually came back to bite. They surrendered the ball often, making too many errors and not putting anywhere enough pressure on the professional Melbourne outfit.
Melbourne then ran up 38 unanswered points over the final 63 minutes, with Jesse Bromwich opening the scoring for the hosts in the 17th minute off a short pass at the line from Brodie Croft.
The most impressive point for the Storm in their 38-point barrage was the new halves combination of Cameron Munster and Brodie Croft. Munster had a big 2017, playing State of Origin, but Croft played excellently on a big stage as he prepares to take over from Cooper Cronk in 2018.
Melbourne had to work hard for their points during a hotly contested first half, but it was Croft himself who crashed over for the second try after taking on the line. A penalty goal followed, with Suliasi Vunivalu putting in a wonderful effort on the stroke of halftime to make the score 18-4 heading into the sheds.
It was always going to be a long way back for Leeds and they simply never found their mojo in the second. Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who was named man of the match, crossed for the first of the second half with Felise Kaufusi, Will Chambers and Dale Finucane all adding to the score before fulltime.
Melbourne Storm 38
Leeds Rhinos 4