The Melbourne Storm dug deep to down Parramatta 16-12 in a golden point thriller at CommBank Stadium on Thursday night, stretching coach Craig Bellamy’s remarkable winning streak in round one matches to 20.
With Cameron Munster nursing a dislocated finger in the second half and Xavier Coates injuring a shoulder, the Storm stayed in the fight long enough to take the game to golden point before Kangaroos hooker Harry Grant scooted over from dummy half to break the deadlock in the 84th minute.
The Storm have not lost an opening round match since Bellamy took the helm in 2003 and this will go down as one of their gutsiest victories given the loss of a number of stars in the off-season and the injury to Munster.
The home side opened the scoring in the fifth minute through a Mitch Moses penalty goal after Storm back-rower Eliesa Katoa went on report for late contact on the Eels halfback.
Some slick ball movement by the Eels then created opportunities for wingers Maika Sivo and Isaac Lumelume but the Storm defence scrambled superbly.
Sivo got across the line in the 17th minute and looked to have the season’s first try but the final pass from Dylan Brown was called forward.
A penalty against Alec MacDonald for late contact on Moses handed Parramatta an opportunity for another shot at goal but they chose to take a tap and keep the pressure on but came up empty.
A big blow for the Storm in the 28th minute when star five-eighth Munster was forced off with a serious finger injury and two minutes later the Eels opened the scoring through Will Penisini.
Munster remarkably returned to the field after the break and, perhaps inspired by his courage, they grabbed their opening try in the 47th minute when Josh King delivered a sweet offload for Nick Meaney to score. The fullback converted his own try for 6-6.
A big play by Sivo in the 58th minute when he rag-dolled Jahrome Hughes into touch gave the Eels field position for hooker Josh Hodgson to send Junior Paulo over for a try.
No sooner had the Eels gone out by six than the Storm hit back through Young Tonumaipea after majestic lead-up by Munster, who passed the ball to himself before putting his centre over in the left corner. Meaney converted for 12-12.
With six minutes to play a mistake by Tyran Wishart opened the door for the Eels but Sivo kicked on tackle one and the ball went dead to let the Storm off the hook.
Moses then had a shot at field goal charged down with three minutes to play and Bryce Cartwright spilled a pass as the Eels mounted a right side raid.
The game went to golden point and Meaney was the first to miss a one-point attempt before Grant’s class got the Storm home in a high quality contest.
Source: NRL.Com