Round 4
Tigers 30 d. Storm 28

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Wests Tigers
Daniel Fitzhenry [WG] 12 Pts; 3t (37th, 53rd, 56th)
Shane Elford [WG] 8 Pts; 2t (19th, 28th)
Paul Whatuira [CT] 4 Pts; 1t (42nd)
Anthony Laffranchi [SR] 4 Pts; 1t (13th)
Brett Hodgson [FB] 2 Pts; 1/7g

Melbourne Storm
Billy Slater [FB] 8 Pts; 2t (62nd, 67th)
Cameron Smith [DH] 8 Pts; 4/5g
Ryan Hoffman [SR] 4 Pts; 1t (78th)
Cooper Cronk [HB] 4 Pts; 1t (80th)
Greg Inglis [CT] 4 Pts; 1t (4th)



Poor handling costs Storm victory
Sun April 2, 2006
The Leichhardt Oval faithful were in full voice on a glorious Sunday afternoon, acting as their beloved Tigers? 14th man as they inspired their heroes to a 30-28 victory over the Melbourne Storm.

It all started so well for the Storm in the opening passages of play with the Tigers rarely getting a touch of the ball.

However, once their main playmakers Benji Marshall and Scott Prince started to exert their creative influence over the game, the Storm found the passing game to hard to combat.

Melbourne was the first team to score after considerable possession in the opening minutes. At the end of one of their sets of six, Cooper Cronk kicked high into the corner where Greg Inglis took one of his trademark screamers over the pack. Inglis and the pack collapsed together over the try line and, although the video referee couldn?t determine whether Inglis had grounded the ball, the referee was willing to give it.

However, this is where the joy ended for the Storm in the first half.

In the 14th minute Anthony Laffranchi crashed through a flimsy Storm defence to opening the home teams account before Shane Elford got on the end of a wonderful Scott Prince pass to score and extend the home teams lead.

Minutes later Elford was at it again, scoring a try to give the Tigers some more breathing space before Daniel Fitzhenry rubbed salt into the Storm wounds, getting on the end of yet another wonderful cut-out pass, this time by Marshall, to send the Tigers in at the half-time break leading 18-4.

The second half could not have started worse for the Storm when a typical free-flowing Tigers move saw Paul Whatuira score to give the Melbourne team a mountain to climb.

That mountain became Everest when Fitzhenry crossed again 15 minutes into the second half, and he completed his hat-trick two minutes later to make the task one even Sir Edmund Hillary would find difficult to scale.

However, as the Tigers began to tire, the Storm lifted a gear and when Slater scored under the posts after Matt King had broken the line and sent the speedy fullback on his way, the Storm sensed they may have a chance.

Slater was at it again minutes later when Adam Blair, making his debut, broke the line before off-loading to send Slater on his way to score under the posts yet again.

With less than two minutes remaining, Cooper Cronk put Ryan Hoffman through a hole to bring the two sides even closer and when Cronk crossed himself on the stroke of full-time, the 30-28 scoreline left the Melbourne club with a feeling of what could have been.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy lamented his team?s poor handling, citing a lack of set completions as the main reason the Storm have lost their past two games.

?We just kept dropping the footy,? said Bellamy.

?We?re the worst team in the competition for completion rates and it didn?t improve today.

?If you don?t hang onto the footy you?re going to be chasing your tail all day, and we were chasing our tail hard.?

Advanced Search