Melbourne Storm came from eight points behind with ten minutes to play to beat Wests Tigers 24-22.
The game started in a cagey fashion with four penalties kicked in the first 25 minutes, three for Esan Marsters and the Tigers and one for Cameron Smith and the Storm. But an electric run from Ryan Papenhuyzen lit up the affair as the fullback ran 80 metres unopposed for the first try of the game which gave Melbourne the lead.
But the Tigers hit back quickly when Josh Aloiai crashed over the top of Melbourne’s defence.
Up by four at the break, Wests extended their lead with an early try: Luke Brooks did brilliantly to ground the ball despite a big shot from Suliasi Vunivalu in defence.
But Brooks didn’t attempt to catch a dangerous bomb from Cameron Munster allowing Felise Kaufusi to take the ball and score for Melbourne.
The game swung back to the Tigers only three minutes later when Benji Marshall laid on a try for Marsters.
With ten minutes to go, the Storm, down eight, got back into the contest when Marion Seve slid over on the right.
Then with two minutes to play, Will Chambers was put through a gap by Kenny Bromwich and the centre, who almost lost the ball, did well to ground the ball and hand the Storm the victory.
Storm: Papenhuyzen, Vunivalu, Chambers, Seve, Addo-Carr, Munster, Croft, J Bromwich, C Smith, Asofa-Solomona, Kaufusi, K Bromwich, Finucane; Interchanges: B Smith, Welch, Kamikamica, Stimson
Tries: Papenhuyzen, Kaufusi, Seve, Chambers; Goals: C Smith 4
Tigers: Mbye, Fonua, Jennings, Marsters, Thompson, Marshall, Brooks, Matulino, Farah, Twal, Matterson, McQueen, Eisenhuth; Interchanges: Liddle, Mikaele, Aloiai, Chee-Kam
Tries: Aloiai, Brooks, Marsters; Goals: Marsters 5
Full match reports of all this weekend’s NRL games will feature in Monday’s League Express.
