Storm’s gritty win takes them to lead
MELBOURNE Storm have clambered to the top of the ladder after another arm-wrestle win, holding out the New Zealand Warriors 12-6.
The premiers haven’t always been pretty during their seven-match winning run but they did enough again at Mt Smart Stadium yesterday.
In a far cry from their 50-10 win over the Warriors on Anzac Day, Melbourne relied on defensive scrambling, slightly better control and some fortunate referee calls to join South Sydney and St George Illawarra on 13 wins for the season.
A superior points differential puts them on top and on target to repeat their minor premiership win last year.
The Storm welcomed back a swag of Origin players but struggled to bust open a Warriors side that has lost four successive matches at its home ground.
First-half tries down the right edge to Will Chambers and Suliasi Vunivalu put them 8-6 up at the break and set up another narrow triumph, having
won three of their previous six games by one point.
Coach Craig Bellamy was delighted with the two points but declared his team well off their best attack-wise.
“It’s going to take our side a little while to jell after Origin,” he said.
“But I like my footy teams to be tough and gritty so we need to continue doing that and hopefully we can sharpen up a little bit with our attack.”
Bellamy believed there was nothing between the teams, crediting victory to superior Storm control at the death.
The Warriors missed injured five-eighth Blake Green.