Vunivalu gives Melbourne its 18th season-opening win

SULIASI Vunivalu has scored two tries in three minutes to give Melbourne their 18thstraight season-opening NRL win with a tough 18-4 victory over Manly yesterday.

In a bizarre afternoon at Lottoland, the game was tryless for 60 minutes while ballkids wore gloves and the ball was cleaned every time it went into the crowd.

With the coronavirus pandemic overshadowing the game, Manly’s high performance unit ordered the extreme measures of using bleach.

But on the field, both sides put on a display which appeared to have far more at stake than a round-one contest.

With each team exchanging penalty goals, the match sat at 4-2 in Manly’s favour before

Vunivalu gave Melbourne the lead with two-straight tries from kicks. The first — in the 61st minute — came when Jahrome Hughes kicked perfectly for Vunivalu behind Manly winger Jorge Taufua to score.

From the next set, Melbourne were on the attack again, as Hughes kicked for Vunivalu for a second time after scooping up a loose ball.

There appeared to be a question mark over the Storm winger getting the ball down, but the try was awarded by the bunker.

Melbourne wrapped the game up when Cameron Smith grubbered out of dummy-half for Tom Eisenhuth with six minutes to play.

In the first game of his 19th season, Smith again controlled the game perfectly, forcing two line dropouts, while Tui Kamikamica ran 149 metres at prop.

Vunivalu might attract match review committee attention for raising his knees and making contact with Dylan Walker’s head in a tackle which went unpenalised. Manly were gritty even if they couldn’t break Melbourne’s line.