Panthers v Broncos preview
7 hours ago | Rhys Sullivan
St George Illawarra have been the benefactors of the NRL's pre-Origin scheduling, after defeating a heavily depleted Melbourne Storm side 20-10 in a drab affair in Wollongong, in front of 7,500 fans.
The Storm opened the scoring early on with a penalty goal in the opening minutes to Tohu Harris which showed that the match was going to be a grind for points. That was definitely the case with neither side really showing any expansive play and the Dragons put all the pressure on but like most weeks the attack was plain.
Gareth Widdop opened the scoring in lucky fashion when his chip and chase took a fortunate rebound off a Storm defender and he regathered and showed enough speed and footwork to beat the Storm fullback to score; Widdop then slotted a penalty goal just after the half hour mark to push the score out to 8-2.
The second half saw plenty of action for the bunker but not a lot of scoring in the early stages with a penalty goal pushing the gap out to eight but it closed down to four not long later when Vunivalu got the first of his double but Tohu Harris couldn't convert.
The Dragons then scored two quick tries to push the game out of reach, the first try came to Kurt Mann who scored out in the corner, before Mitch Rein took off from dummy half and got underneath the Storm defence to score.
Vunivalu got the second of his customary double in the final seconds of the game and Harris again missed the conversion and it was 20-10 at full time.
Next weekend the Storm will most likely welcome back their Origin stars on Sunday afternoon when they take on the Wests Tigers at home, whilst the Dragons have a double freeway trip when they travel up the F6 and M1 to take on the hapless Newcastle Knights next Saturday.
-
Venue:
Crowd:
Halftime Score: