Junior Rep Report: Rounds 12 & 13

Round 12 vs Warriors

Melbourne Storm’s Jersey Flegg side have gone down 28-24 to the Warriors at Go Media Stadium in Round 12 of the U21’s competition. 

Travelling across to New Zealand for the match, Storm started strongly with Matthew Hill continuing his stunning run of try-scoring form, throwing the dummy and slicing through in the 7th minute. 

Both teams then traded tries, the Warriors scoring through Rodney Tuipulotuvea before Storm responded thanks to some nice dummy-half work from Gabriel Satrick, the young hooker splitting the Warriors defence and showing great pace to run away and score. 

Stanley Huen then fired out some early ball to in-form centre Liam Williams who did the rest, leaving several defenders in his wake before Huen scooped up a loose ball and forced his way over to score yet another four-pointer before the half concluded. 

Battling a number of big outs due to the injury, Storm weren’t able to keep the momentum going in the second half, the Warriors fighting hard on their home turf to score four tries unanswered.  

Despite Storm throwing everything at the hosts in the final 10 minutes, the Warriors were able to hold on for the narrow victory, with Storm now turning its attention to the Sea Eagles on Saturday at Seabrook Reserve. 

Round 13 vs Manly Sea Eagles

Melbourne Storm’s Jersey Flegg side has produced an inspired performance in front of local support at Seabrook Reserve to hold on for a 22-18 win over the Manly Sea Eagles in Round 13. 

Desperate to keep themselves in the hunt for finals heading into the second half of the season, Storm showed plenty of resilience to overcome two early tries to the visitors and keep themselves in the arm-wrestle. 

Having made the shift to centre to accommodate for the return of Hugo Peel at fullback, the move did little to limit Matthew Hill’s stunning run of try scoring form, the exciting prospect finding the tryline right on the eve of halftime to put Storm down by only six points at the break. 

Up against a physical Manly pack, Storm then retaliated with some firepower of their own in the second half, Tevita Petelo and Suli Pole providing serious aggression and force from the bench. 

Storm were eventually rewarded on the scoreboard for their hard work through the middle of the field, winger Siulagi Pio plucking the ball from the sky to score in the 43rd minute and Trent Veukiso finding the tryline five minutes later.

Manly then hit back through Broden Konz and with Storm now trailing by two-points, they responded in the best possible fashion, Preston Conn winning the race to a well-weighted grubber to take back the lead in the 59th minute. 

Despite a late charge from Manly, Storm’s defence held strong in the final minutes to ensure the Club recorded its 6th win of the season. 

Storm will look to carry the momentum into this Sunday’s exciting Round 14 clash against the Penrith Panthers on Sunday at AAMI Park. 

Originally published on melbournestorm.com.au