Leeds helpless in Storm conditions

IT WOULD be harsh on Leeds to say this was a serious humiliation – but it would not be too far wide of the mark.

In the annual battle between the champions of the NRL and the Super League, Melbourne showed their class to run out easy victors.

Leeds led early on with a try from England winger Ryan Hall. But from that point the Storm were superior in every department – ruthless in defence and deadly in attack – and can now call themselves the best club side on the planet.

Leeds boss Brian McDermott, who was already without a quartet of props through injury, lost rookie full-back Jack Walker (knee) and Stevie Ward (torn calf) during the first half.

“We still could have been better, even after losing them,” he said.

“Stevie is a hugely influential forward and when you lose a full-back as well it involves changing the team around a lot. Jack’s cartilage is torn and has locked, so he will have an operation to have it cleaned up – it’s not a major injury.

“Stevie looks like he’s torn a calf and we don’t know the extent of it yet. While we never had a complete grip of the game in the first half, I didn’t think we’d lost it either.

“It was a decent contest but Melbourne’s defence was outstanding. It was suffocating and the more the game went on, the better they got at it. No matter what we tried, they were smothering us. Their defence was awesome.”

Despite Storm losing star playmaker Cooper Cronk to