A late penalty goal for offside, converted by their captain Cameron Smith, secured a 13-14 victory over the Manly Sea Eagles today at Lottoland.
The Storm were under-strength, with a halfback combination of youngsters Ryley Jacks and Brodie Croft, but they held out for a narrow victory over the struggling Sea Eagles.
After his heroics in last week’s State of Origin game Daly Cherry-Evans backed up from that game and the Sea Eagles started the game with two tries in the opening ten minutes, both of them from backrower Shaun Lane, with Cherry-Evans converting the first and then adding a penalty for a 12-0 lead.
The Storm fought back with a try from Suliasi Vunivalu, converted by Smith, before Cherry-Evans extended the Sea Eagles’ lead to two scores with a field-goal on 38 minutes.
On 48 minutes the Storm scored their second try through Croft and the arm-wrestle continued until the Sea Eagles were unluckily penalised and Smith was able to win the game for the Storm which puts them, at least temporarily, in second place in the NRL ladder.
Sea Eagles: 1 Tom Trbojevic, 2 Matthew Wright, 3 Moses Suli, 4 Brian Kelly, 5 Bradley Parker, 19 Thomas Wright, 7 Daly Cherry-Evans (c), 8 Addin Fonua-Blake, 9 Manase Fainu, 10 Martin Taupau, 11 Joel Thompson, 12 Shaun Lane, 13 Jake Trbojevic; Interchange: 14 Trent Hodkinson, 15 Kelepi Tanginoa, 16 Frank Winterstein, 17 Taniela Paseka
Tries: Lane 2; Goals: Cherry-Evans 2; Field-Goal: Cherry Evans
Storm: 7 Jahrome Hughes, 2 Suliasi Vunivalu, 18 Cheyse Blair, 4 Curtis Scott, 20 Young Tonumaipea, 21 Ryley Jacks, 22 Brodie Croft, 16 Christian Welch, 9 Cameron Smith (c), 10 Nelson Asofa-Solomona, 17 Joe Stimson, 12 Ryan Hoffman, 13 Kenny Bromwich; Interchange: 8 Jesse Bromwich, 14 Brandon Smith, 15 Tim Glasby, 19 Tui Kamikamica
Tries: Vunivalu, Croft; Goals: Smith 3
Full reports and photos from the NRL’s latest round of fixtures will feature in Monday’s edition of League Express
