Melbourne underscored its standing as the Jersey Flegg Cup’s top side with a dominant 48-12 win over a reshuffled One New Zealand Warriors lineup in Saturday’s round 20 encounter at North Harbour Stadium.
The home side brought winning form into the under-21 contest – albeit through three dramatic comeback efforts – but soon found the Storm would be too hot to handle.
Fielding a rearranged pack and bench, the Warriors were unable to settle from the get-go with the Storm hitting them with their first try in the opening minute and following up with three more all too soon to have a commanding 20-0 lead after 18 minutes.
The only respite came 30 minutes in when a last tackle Jack Thompson bomb went loose in the in-goal with winger Motu Pasikala, back from time on the sideline, pouncing to score.
Match: Warriors v Storm
Round 20 -
home Team
Warriors
9th Position
away Team
Storm
1st Position
Venue: North Harbour Stadium, Auckland
Melbourne responded by piling on more points stretching out to 32-6 at halftime.
There was no miraculous comeback this time although the Warriors did score first in the second half when loose forward Paea Sikuvea grabbed a try off a kick the Storm failed to defuse to make it 12-32.
From there it was Melbourne on the advance again running out to a 36-point winning margin backing up its 38-12 win over the Warriors earlier in the season.
There’s a competition-wide bye next week before the Warriors travel to Wollongong to take on the Dragons on August 2.
