Jersey Flegg Match Report: Storm too strong

Melbourne gave the One New Zealand Warriors another tough day out in Saturday’s second-round Jersey Flegg Cup (under-21) clash at AAMI Park.

Lining up in the curtain raiser to the NRL match between the two clubs, both sides were coming off heavy losses in the opening round.

The Storm slipped to a 14-36 defeat by St George Illawarra while the Warriors went down 10-38 to Cronulla Sutherland.

This had the potential to be a close encounter and played out that way in the first half, centre William Piliu’s converted try cutting Melbourne’s halftime lead to 12-6.

When Piliu’s fellow centre Sialetili Faeamani crossed early in the second half it really was game on.

However, in a repeat of last week’s match against the Steelers, the Warriors couldn’t sustain the effort as the Storm steamed clear with four converted tries to win 36-10.

The Warriors are away from home again next week facing a Canberra Raiders side which has put together two convincing wins in the opening two rounds of the competition.