Stingy Storm trump Sloppy Souths

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South Sydney Rabbitohs v Melbourne Storm

Melbourne's stingy defence was at it's usual best as they beat Souths, who were sloppy far too often with ball in hand.

Souths had the lions share of prime field position and so often they had a larger volume of possession inside their oppositions 30 metres, yet could only muster 2 tries for the game.

The Storm opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Jonah Pezet put up a kick before the two Souths backs collided mid-air, one of which was due to a collision with Cameron Munster. Josh King swooped in, cleaned up the loose ball and dived over to score. Nick Meaney converted from out wide.

The Rabbitohs immediately hit back when Cameron Murray got the ball at the line, got his way through the line and then offloaded to an unmarked Cody Walker who hit the pass at speed and raced away to score a good try. Latrell Mitchell converted.

Harry Grant had a possible try denied by the bunker in the 16th minute, but five minutes later, the Storm would not be denied when William Warbrick got one-on-one with Alex Johnson and just ploughed through him to score in the right corner. Meaney added the extras from the sideline.

At halftime, the Storm lead 12-6.

Melbourne started the second half looking dead keen to score plenty of points, with Munster spearheading the attack. In the 44th minute, Xavier Coates was put into space down the left side, he got into the clear, and as he approached Mitchell, he kicked low infield where Munster got a perfect bounce, which he gathered and then raced away to score a great try. Meaney again added the extras.

Reimis Smith went close to scoring in the 57th minute, but it was Souths who got on the board next when Mitchell help up a beautiful pass for Campbell Graham and the Bunnies centre barged over between two edge defenders. Mitchell failed to convert from the sideline.

The Bunker was then put to good use as it reviewed 3 possible tries to Souths and 1 to the Storm, all of which were rightly denied. Souths had a mountain of possession and play was largely confined to Melbourne's half, but Souths last tackle options all game were sloppy, poorly executed or just very slow and easily shut down.

Melbourne's defence was unreletenting and kept Souths from scoring again and when the siren sounded, the Storm had won 18-10.