Round 9
Rabbitohs 14 l. Storm 38

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Storm stew Bunnies, Crocker on report
Sun May 7, 2006
Source: www.melbournestorm.com.au

The Storm has overcome a gutsy effort from the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the loss of key players before the game to grind out a hard fought 38-14 victory in front of 8,083 fans to extend their unbeaten run at Telstra Stadium.

Centre Matt King and winger Jake Webster were both ruled out of the game after sustaining rib and neck injuries respectively in the Test match between Australian and New Zealand in Brisbane the night before.

Into the team came Scott Hill and Chris Walker, and the late inclusions seemed to disrupt the harmony the team had been displaying in the past three weeks.

The Rabbitohs dominated the opening exchanges and should have opened the scoring in the 10th minute when Luke MacDougall had nothing more to do than put the ball down over the try line. But Greg Inglis had other ideas and his try-saving tackle jarred the ball loose.

Then it was the Storm's turn to dominate play for the next 25 minutes with Cam Smith scoring and converting a try after a great chip kick by Cronk was spilled by the Rabbitoh's Ben Walker a metre out from his own try line.

A penalty against the Rabbitohs right in front of the posts gave Cam Smith the chance to extend Storm's lead which he gratefully accepted and it looked like the Storm would go in comfortable 8-0 leaders at the break.

However, a lack of concentration with a minute of the first-half to go allowed Rabbitohs fullback Nathan Merritt to score in the corner and convert to give the Rabbitohs the confidence injection they needed going into the break.

Within 10 minutes of the restart, two Hill grubber kicks behind the defence allowed first Inglis and then Crocker to score, seemingly putting the win out of the Rabbitohs reach.

However, when Crocker was harshly sin-binned for ten minutes for a 3rd-man-in offence after an incident between Ryan Hoffman and Jaiman Lowe was threatening to boil over, the Rabbitohs got themselves back into the game.

Firstly Luke MacDougall scored to bring the Bunnies within 10 points before David Fa'alogo scored the try of the season. No fewer than 17 passes, including a kick, were executed and with the Storm only having 12 players on the ground, it was too much to handle.

However, when Crocker returned to even up the numbers, the Storm put the foot down.

Matt Geyer, who was close to best on ground, scored one and had a major hand in Jeremy Smith's first try of the season before Chris Walker scored in the final minute to rub salt into his former teammates wounds.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy was aware Souths would come into the game confident of a win.

"We knew it was going to be a real tough contest," said Bellamy.

"Souths are getting close to a win, they played really well last week.

"I thought the first half we played a little bit flat and we were a little bit negative with the footy. But again our defence has been keeping us in games all year and I thought that was probably the case again tonight."

Bellamy acknowledged the loss of key players in the backline to injury and suspensions hadn't helped preparations.

"At the start of the year I was aware that might be a little bit of a problem for us," said Bellamy.

"With Jake and Kingy not playing tonight and Billy still suspended it's really stretching us."

The loss of Crocker for 10 minutes in the second-half could have cost Storm the game, but Bellamy wasn't blaming the rugged back-rower.

"He's gone in with who knows how many other blokes and didn't throw a punch," said Bellamy.

"The other two (Hoffman and Lowe) are eye-balling each other, the other guy (Lowe) threw the first punch and Crocker ends up in the sin-bin?and that nearly changed the game.

"I can't believe they came up with that decision."

With Crocker on report, King and Webster injured and Slater still unavailable for next week, the Storm depth may be tested even further for the visit of the Cowboys to Olympic Park next Saturday night.

Report sent by: www.melbournestorm.com.au

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