The Roosters were sitting in third place and came into the game full of confidence, although they were without their star fullback James Tedesco because of the concussion he suffered in the recent State of Origin clash. He was replaced by Cody Ramsey, while forward Lindsay Collins was also sidelined with concussion and centre Robert Toia was rested.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy was faced with the loss of his two superstar halfbacks. Cameron Munster has knee cartilage damage while Jahrome Hughes has a hamstring problem. Instead there was a new halfback partnership of Tyran Wishart and Trent Toelau. Former Catalans star Joe Chan was also out with a back strain.

The Roosters opened the scoring with a try by Siua Wong in the sixth minute, which came from a Daly Cherry-Evans kick over the defence that was brilliantly palmed back by Mark Nawaqanitawase.

Trent Toelau had a try controversially disallowed for Melbourne before Billy Smith added a second Roosters try from a smart passing movement shortly after a Cherry-Evans 40-20. Sam Walker could convert neither try.

Shortly afterwards Melbourne suffered a blow when Kiwi winger Will Warbrick had to leave the field with what appeared to be an Achilles tendon injury.

With the scored at 8-0, the Storm drew closer with a converted try by Stefano Utoikamanu, shortly after Nat Butcher had conceded a penalty for a dangerous tackle and Sam Walker had generated a set restart with a ruck infringement. Utoikamanu forced his way over the line and Nick Meaney added the conversion to close the gap to two points with 21 minutes remaining.

After that the Storm applied relentless pressure, but without being able to score points and it was the Roosters who scored the decisive try when Ramsey broke downfield and, despite being tackled by Wishart, the Roosters were able to set up the position for Smith to put Daniel Tupou over in the corner, with Walker landing a superb touchline conversion to put eight points between the teams.

The Storm tried hard to score again to stay in the game and they created an overlap on the right, but Meaney, who was playing on the wing after Warbrick’s injury, couldn’t take the final pass and put it down a metre short of the line.

It had been a valiant performance by the under-strength Storm, but they just fell short.

Meanwhile the Roosters moved into second place, just two points behind leaders Penrith Panthers.

GAME STAR: Nat Butcher made 52 tackles and was crucial in keeping out the Storm as they threatened to take the lead.

GAMEBREAKER: Sam Walker landed his first successful conversion out of three attempts when he converted Daniel Tupou’s late try, but it was crucial in that it put an eight-point margin between the sides.

  1 Cody Ramsey

  2 Daniel Tupou

  3 Billy Smith

  4 Hugo Savala

  5 Mark Nawaqanitawase

  6 Daly Cherry-Evans

  7 Sam Walker

  8 Naufahu Whyte

  9 Reece Robson

10 Spencer Leniu

11 Nat Butcher

12 Siua Wong

13 Victor Radley

Subs

14 Connor Watson

15 Salesi Foketi

16 Egan Butcher

17 Taylor Losalu not used

18 Rex Bassingthwaighte not used

19 Tommy Talau not used

Tries: Wong (6), Smith (26), Tupou (75)

Goals: Walker 1/3

  1 Sualauvi Faalogo

  2 Will Warbrick

  3 Jack Howarth

  4 Nick Meaney

19 Siulagi Tuimalatu-Brown

  6 Tyran Wishart

  7 Trent Toelau

  8 Stefano Utoikamanu

  9 Harry Grant

10 Josh King

11 Cooper Clarke

17 Oryn Keeley

13 Trent Loiero

Subs

14 Gabriel Satrick not used

15 Jack Hetherington

16 Joseph Pahulu not used

17 Alec MacDonald

18 Stanley Huen

20 Davvy Moale

Tries: Utoikamanu (58)

Goals: Meaney 1-1

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 8-0; 8-6, 14-6

Roosters: Nat Butcher; Storm: Cooper Clarke

Penalty count: 3-2

Half-time: 8-0

Referee: Gerard Sutton

Attendance: 16,010