Penrith have defeated the Storm by 34-16 in convincing fashion under the roof at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne tonight.
The home side raced out to an early 14-0 lead after 30 minutes, before the defending premiers shot the lights out to race in six unanswered tries in a performance that pushed the defending premiers into first place on the NRL ladder.
Despite the numerous representative stars on the paddock for the visitors, it was their unheralded stars who shone, with centre Izack Tago having a day out, scoring two tries and a try assist in terrific performance from the Panthers young gun.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy will be livid with his side falling away meekly after a really strong start to the match, where they looked headed for a comfortable halftime lead. That was until the home side let in three tries in ten minutes to give Penrith a shock halftime lead. The defending premiers then went on with it in the second stanza, where they added three more tries in an impressive performance for a side still missing their superstar halfback in Nathan Cleary who is now likely to return after next week's bye.
With both sides having a number of origin players, the animosity started early when Blues and Panthers five-eighth Jerome Luai tackled Storm half Jahrome Hughes as he kicked on the last tackle. The Storm players let Luai know about it and he was subsequently penalised. Storm goalkicker Nick Meaney took to two points on offer and got his side a 2-0 lead after as many minutes.
Melbourne then got the jump on the defending premiers, when QLD hooker Harry Grant scored from a charge down, with the crafty number nine getting a perfect bounce to score the first try of the match for an 8-0 lead.
The Storm continued their early dominance when Reimis Smith produced a beautiful right foot step and offload for a barnstorming Nelson Asofa-Solomona to score. Despite replays suggesting that the Kiwi backrower lost the ball late, the Video Referee controversially awarded the try to give Melbourne a 14-0 lead.
Penrith were in danger of losing touch, however the visitors were awarded a penalty try to Stephen Crichton in the 31st minute. The Bulldogs bound centre looked set to score, but replays showed that Storm fullback Nick Meaney pulled the arm of Crichton without the ball and impeded him from grounding the ball.
Minutes later Izack Tago makes it back-to-back tries for the visitors as Luai put the young gun over in the left-hand corner. Penrith then had another try with Lindsay Smith the unlikely hero as the interchange forward contested a Jack Cogger bomb. He then collected the rebound and produced a sublime flick pass to find Liam Martin who scored just a minute before halftime. Crichton converted to give his side a shock 16-14 lead.
It was déjà vu for Melbourne early in the second half when they received another penalty courtesy of Jarome Luai to provide Meaney with another gift two points which was gladly cashed in.
Penrith then pulled away when Tago crashed through the Storm defence to score his second try and was then involved in another try minutes later when he got a desperate kick away on the last. The ball was charged upon by interchange forward Zac Hosking, who picked up the scraps to score next to the posts to give the Panthers a commanding lead.
Jarome Luai then put a cherry on top late, when he bounced away from two Storm would be defenders to deliver a clever kick in goal to find a flying Brian To'o who scored to give his side a huge confidence boost as they head into next week's bye round.