Folau On The Double In Storm Win

The Age

Tuesday May 13, 2008

Stathi Paxinos

MELBOURNE Storm coach Craig Bellamy last night said he was proud of how his leg-weary team had ground out a tight 18-4 win over Newcastle in a game that could cut a hole through NSW's state-of-origin preparations.

In a brutal National Rugby League encounter in which neither team scored by half-time, Newcastle's NSW hopefuls Kurt Gidley (cheekbone) and Ben Cross (concussion) received injuries, while Melbourne prop Brett White also had a scare when he came off the field after five minutes with a shoulder injury.

Storm medical staff determined the front-rower had only a "stinger" in the left shoulder and he returned late in the first half and played the game out.

With the Blues side to be named this morning, White declared he was fit to take his place. White said he crunched his neck during a tackle about five minutes into the game and immediately felt pain down his left arm. But he said the pain subsided quickly and he knew that the injury was not serious.

"It was pretty painful and then eased off pretty quick once I got up and got to the sidelines," White said.

"All week, I've made a conscious decision not to worry about (origin) next week . . . the thing I was worried about was getting back into the defensive line and doing my job here for the Melbourne Storm."

Newcastle full-back Gidley was also injured in the game's first few minutes with a suspected hairline fracture to the cheekbone. He played the game out and Knights medical officer Dr Peter McGeoch said Gidley's injury could rule him out for up to four weeks but there had been cases where players have returned to play the following week.

There was also concern for Cross, who is aiming for a position in the Blues' front row, after he was heavily concussed in the final play of the game. He stumbled as he tried to get to his feet and later collapsed when signing autographs on the way to the dressing rooms.

The Storm's other origin hopefuls - Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Greg Inglis, Israel Folau, Dallas Johnson and Michael Crocker for Queensland and Anthony Quinn and Ryan Hoffman for NSW - got through unscathed.

The game was a real arm-wrestle, a direct contrast to the corresponding game last year at Olympic Park in which the Storm thumped the Knights 44-0.

Melbourne, with eight players backing up from last Friday's Centenary Test, had the best chances but were denied by some outstanding desperate try-line defence.

"They made us work really hard for it, but I was really happy with the composure of our guys," Bellamy said.

"We certainly didn't panic and showed a lot of patience and at the end of the day we wore them down and scored some points at the end.

"I thought it was a real good effort. I believe it was a good performance from our guys. Newcastle played really well and we had to stick in there and show some patience with guys who were a bit leg weary and also a couple of them were probably a little bit mentally down after playing that Test."

Storm finally cracked the Newcastle line early in the second half and it was no surprise which combination proved successful. Half-back Cooper Cronk launched a cross field kick towards right centre Israel Folau, who again outleaped the Knights defence to snatch the ball, spin around and fell over the try line to score. Cameron Smith made the conversion to give the Storm a 6-0 lead.

Folau got his double on 66 minutes when he received a smart flick pass from Crocker and then weaved his way through the last line of defence to score. Smith was again successful with the conversion to give the Storm a 12-0 lead.

Anthony Quinn put Melbourne out of reach after Jarrod Mullen scored a late try to narrow the scoreline to 12-4.

Mullen and and Knights' teammate Cory Patterson were put on report for a lifting tackle on Storm back-rower Sam Tagataese.

Newcastle's Cooper Vuna injured a leg just minutes after White left the field. But Vuna showed little after-effects when he pulled off a remarkable try-saving tackle to run down Storm speedster Steve Turner late in the half.

DETAILS

MELBOURNE 18

(Folau 2, Quinn tries; Smith 3 goals)

d NEWCASTLE 4

(Mullen try)

at Olympic Park.

Crowd: 10,624.

Referee: B Cummins.