Another test, another Storm win

Another tight contest, another Storm victory. Taking games to the wire has become the norm for the Storm team of 2006.

In front of just over 13,000 Dragons fans at Kogarah, a venue the Storm had never played at before, the Melbourne side showed the fighting spirit that has taken them to the head of the 2006 Telstra NRL Premiership ladder, defeating the home team 30-24 in a classic encounter.

Starting the game without Jake Webster, who stayed in Melbourne having not recovered from a virus, and David Kidwell who was rested, coach Craig Bellamy had a couple of handy replacements to throw into the run-on side.

Greg Inglis made his long awaited return from injury, taking the place of Webster in the centres, while Michael Crocker took Kidwell’s place in the backrow.

The Storm has proven to be St George Illawarra’s bogey team in recent times, winning nine of their past 10 clashes before today’s game, and within 11 minutes it looked like the trend would continue, racing to a 12-2 lead.

Tries to Matt King and Ryan Hoffman had given the visitors a handy early lead, however Oki Jubilee Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for the Dragons and they were soon back in the contest.

Dragons halfback Matthew Head got his kicking game going and it wasn’t long before the contest got interesting.

Matt Cooper was the beneficiary of Head’s first kick, scoring a try in the corner, before Head laid on another kick for Mark Gasnier to score the Dragons’ second.

However, with just two minutes left in the first half, the Storm hit back when Steve Turner scored in the corner to give the Storm a slight 16-12 half-time lead.

The second half began with Inglis reminding everyone why he is rated the next super star of the NRL.

Gathering the ball on the half way line, Inglis gave what is becoming his trademark fend, getting rid of a couple of Dragons defenders before outpacing fullback Ben Hornby to extend the Storm’s lead.

However, Head was not finished and when another precision kick found winger Brett Morris in the corner, the crowd could sense this game would be a cliffhanger.

The next 30 minutes was filled with plenty of talking points.

Firstly, a Scott Hill pass hit Hoffman in the chest, and while most players stopped, expecting the referee’s whistle to be blown for a knock-on, Hoffman continued.

He gathered, offloaded to Turner, who in turn passed the ball on to King, who scored near the posts with the crowd clearly not happy.

Two minutes later Billy Slater was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes for a professional foul.

With Slater off the field, Dragons skipper Trent Barrett took full advantage, crossing in the corner after some wonderful lead up work from Colin Best.

And when yet another Head kick found Gasnier, with Cooper in support to score with 12 minutes to go, there was only two points in it.

Smith put the Storm four points clear with six minutes remaining when he converted after the Dragons were penalised for offside, but a minute later a Storm knock on 10 metres from their own try line gave the home side a great chance of snatching victory.

Another knock on by the Storm gave the Dragons a repeat set of six and with two minutes on the clock, when it seemed certain Gasnier would score next to the posts, Crocker made a desperate try-line tackle that won the game for the Storm.

With seconds on the clock, Slater, who had returned to the field, broke out of the defensive line to race 80 metres down field, setting up Cooper Cronk for the sealer.

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