The Storm powered back to winning ways with a 48-16 victory over the Eels on Sunday afternoon, but the re-aggravation of an existing groin injury for Cameron Munster took some of the shine off the result at Magic Round.
Having missed the opening month of the season with the issue, Munster broke down late in the first half with a recurrence of the injury and was in visible pain as he left the field, after initially attempting to play on.
While scans will be required to determine the severity, it's an injury which is set to have major consequences for both the Storm and Maroons in coming weeks.
On the field at Suncorp Stadium the Storm handled the loss of their five-eighth with aplomb, scoring five tries in the second half to blow the Eels off the park and rack up win number eight for the season.
While the Eels enjoyed a brief period of parity afterTui Kamikamica's opener inside 10 minutes, when they hit back through Bailey Simonsson, Melbourne produced a couple of top-shelf tries to get in front again.
First Will Warbrick fended and weaved through four tackle attempts on a huge 40-metre run, before Xavier Coates came up with an excellent kick back in field following a break to gift his skipper Harry Grant his first four-pointer of the night.
Harry Grant 1st Try
Blaize Talagi's try directly off a scrum reduced the Eels' deficit to six at the break, although any chance of a totally upbeat dressing room for the Storm came crashing down when Munster left the field.
But for all their work in the first half, Paramatta were no match for Melbourne in the second 40 minutes.
Grant scored his second before Reimis Smith bagged a double in the space of three minutes to stretch the lead to 26, with Nick Meaney dialed in from the kicking tee as well.
A wayward offload from Will Penisini then gifted Coates a 90-metre runaway, with a try to in-form second-rower Eliesa Katoa putting the icing on a comprehensive win.
Match Snapshot
- Cameron Munster re-strained an existing groin injury just before half-time and was ruled out of the remainder of the game.
- The Storm are the highest scoring team at Magic Round with 174 points scored in five games at the annual event.
- The Eels are now one from five in Magic Round games.
- With a double on Sunday Harry Grant extended his run of consecutive games in which he's scored a try against the Eels to four, while centre Reimis Smith now has four-straight games with a try at Suncorp Stadium.
- Xavier Coates was sent for, and later passed, a HIA following a head clash with Blaize Talagi on the half hour mark.
Play of the Game
Will Warbrick showed off his full bag of tricks with this four-pointer, which came out of nowhere after he got the ball out wide 40 metres from the line. The Kiwi left Junior Paulo clutching at his jersey before fending of Joey Lussick, with some subtle footwork then seeing off the chase of Maika Sivo before he went around last man Blaize Talagi.
What They Said
"Second half was embarrassing. We just fell in a hole for a period of 10 or 15 minutes, lacked resilience in that period and then just kept digging the hole deeper at times. We'd fight out of it for a bit but the damage was done. It [second-half collapses] have happened too often in the past month or so. When we get under a little bit of fatigue, we are lacking that resilience to defend a set." – Eels coach Brad Arthur.
"There was a fair bit I liked about the performance. I am just really happy with the way we attacked and defended in the second half. We had a lot of changes with injuries, obviously with [Cameron] Munster going off and Xavier [Coates] went off for a bit, so there were a few guys playing out of position there. They really gelled well." – Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
What's Next
The Storm travel to Sydney in Round 12 to face Manly at 4 Pines Park on Friday night, with Munster's injury meaning even more importance now surrounds the possible return of halfback Jahrome Hughes from a calf injury. The Eels face off against the Rabbitohs at Accor Stadium with Mitchell Moses considered an outside chance of returning to action.
