Melbourne Storm win against Titans gets things back on track in dominant NRL display
On a great day for the Storm when Australian coach Ricky Stuart named no fewer than10 Melbourne players in his preliminary 46-man World Cup squad, one of those players, Greg Inglis, led his teammates to an emphatic 44-4 victory over the Gold Coast Titans at Olympic Park.
Inglis’ performance underlined why he was voted the game’s best by his peers with two tries that will no doubt be added to an enormous highlights reel when his career is complete.
Not to be outdone, his centre partner Israel Folau almost stole Inglis’ thunder with a two-try first-half performance of his own that had to be seen to be believed.
The nine-tries-to-one win closed the gap on Manly’s superior points difference with the two sides to meet next Friday night in a top-of-the-table clash that will go a long way to deciding the minor premiership.
Folau’s first-half tries were almost identical with the towering 20-year-old picking up the ball 10 metres from the try-line before barging over the line with would-be defenders trying desperately to halt his momentum. They needn’t have bothered.
After Steve Turner had opened the scoring in the eighth minute, Inglis produced a piece of magic that sent the crowd into raptures. Picking up the ball 20 metres out in the middle of the ground, Inglis drifted left across the field before exploding towards the try-line, pushing defenders off with that unbelievable right-hand fend, and planting the ball over the line.
Jordan Ropana scored the Titans’ only try with three minutes to go in the half before Anthony Quinn scored the Storm’s fifth of the half in the last minute.
The scoreline could have looked a lot worse for the Gold Coast team had Cam Smith kicked straight. Unfortunately the wind played havoc with Smith’s radar, missing all five conversion attempts.
Two minuets into the second half Inglis produced his second piece of genius for the night. Halfback Cooper Cronk put up a towering bomb that Titans fullback Preston Campbell seemed to have covered. Inglis had other ideas. Running with the flight of the ball, Inglis challenged Campbell in the air, took the grab, landed and made the 10-metre dash to the try line.
Ryan Hoffman, Matt Geyer and Jeremy Smith rounded of the second half scoring for the Storm.
Smith must have changed his boots at half-time as he converted all four second-half attempts.
STORM 44 (Tries: Folau 2, Inglis 2, Turner, Quinn, Hoffman, Geyer, J Smith; Goals: Cam Smith 4) def. TITANS 4 (Try: Ropana) at Olympic Park
