Storm outlast Dragons in tense clash

v BYE

A double-shot of penalty goals before halftime helped the Melbourne Storm overcome the St George Illawarra Dragons 18-16 tonight at AAMI Park in front of 12,148 fans.

Solid favourites going into tonight's contest, the Storm stuttered at the start, turning over a fair bit of ball and ultimately conceding the opening pair of tries. Some soft defence on the wing of Young Tonumaipea allowed Jason Nightingale to cross out wide, and not too long after that Benji Marshall crashed over after some frantic offloading at the end of a set. Widdop converted the second try giving the Dragons a 10-0 lead after 15 minutes.

An error on the second play after the resumption following Marshall's try saw the Dragons forced into defensive mode and in much the same way they'd exploited Tonumaipea's wing, the visitors found their flankers of Dugan and Aitken exposed as Marika Koroibete found sublime pace to score in the corner. He scored in the 17th and again in the 24th off a set play - but Cameron Smith was unable to add the extras on either occasion.

The key moment for the Storm came in two late first-half sets where they earned penalties just beside the posts within 20 metres of the Dragons line. On both occasions they chose to add the two points via penalty goal - and Cameron Smith obliged by kicking both and rectifying his earlier conversion misses and giving the hosts a 12-10 lead.

It would be the Dragons who would find themselves with a chance to level scores as the siren went for halftime - Gareth Widdop's penalty goal attempt from 30m out however was unsuccessful so the Storm were able to retain their two point advantage at the change of ends.

A Kenny Bromwich try opened proceedings in the second half after his brother Jesse charged at the line, found a neat offload for his captain Cameron Smith who quickly found a steamrolling Kenny to hand the ball to and power through a gap. The subsequent conversion gave the home side an 8-point lead which would be difficult to come back from.

For the remainder of the contest the Storm looked likely but didn't seem to have the final touch - combined with some solid Dragons' defence they failed to add any more points. Around the hour mark, the Dragons clawed back into the contest with a lucky try to Tyson Frizell who capitalised on an error at the back from the Storm, but the two point deficit after Widdop's subsequent conversion is as close as the Dragons would get despite several chances at the Storm line late in the contest.

There were no dramatic injuries in tonight's contest unlike the preceeding seven games - so next week the Storm will look to be fit and firing when they host the Titans on Sunday night back at AAMI Park, while the Dragons are part of Sunday afternoon footy the same day up in the Shire against local rivals Cronulla.