Munster and Storm demolish Roosters

v BYE

The Melbourne Storm handed the Sydney Roosters a 46-0 drubbing on Saturday night to mark the home side's worst ever loss at Allianz Stadium.

For the 8499 fans in attendance they had little to cheer about as young gun Cameron Munster and Queensland Origin star Cooper Cronk led a Melbourne masterclass. 

The victory continues the Storm's mid-season winning streak to seven games and puts them on top of the NRL ladder. 

It took just seven minutes for Melbourne to earn their first points through a try to Suliasi Vunivalu, the first of three for the Fijian, and the Storm took an 18-0 lead to halftime. 

Rooster's coach Trent Robinson thought his team simply needed to run and tackle harder to be any chance of winning the game from the second half, instead, the Sydney siders were slow and unfocused. 

At 12-0 Blake Ferguson appeared to have kept the Roosters in the game when he beat Munster to a Jake Friend grubber kick 10 metres out from the try line; but his uncontested dash to the chalk was cut short when he tripped and knocked the ball on. 

Munster had the best game of his NRL career to date and posted one try, three try assists, four line breaks, four line break assists and six tackle breaks. 

On one of Cameron Smith's conversion attempts from a sideline Vunivalu try, the captain slipped over as he kicked the football off the tee and still managed to place the footy over the black dot. It was one of the more miraculous successful conversions in rugby league history. 

Vunivalu took his career try tally to 11 from just seven games.

Leading into the game there was high anticipation for the performance of referee Ben Cummins, as this was the first game he would officiate after the infamous Robinson post-match press conference.

The first penalty Cummins awarded garnered the loudest cheer from the Roosters fans all night and the final penalty count finished 5-4 in Melbourne's favour. 

With the likes of Mitchell Pearce, Dylan Napa, Boyd Cordner and Isaac Liu missing for the home team the Storm were able to stop Jared Warea-Hargreave's usual dominance and exposed Ryan Matterson in defence.  

In the 67th minute at 34-0 the Storm were on the attack through Marika Koroibete. After the play Blake Ferguson and Mitchell Aubusson stayed with Ryan Morgan and the Melbourne winger for a scuffle. 

Play continued and the Storm ran in a try on the next play where Ferguson and Aubusson were to have been defending. 

In a forward pack that outplayed their counterparts, Kevin Proctor was the pick of the Storm bunch as he scored a try, ran 179 metres and made 31 tackles. 

The Storm will play the St George Illawarra Dragons next Saturday night at WIN Stadium and the Roosters will travel to Mt Smart Stadium to face the New Zealand Warriors next Sunday.