Melbourne Storm's wide men stood up and their middle held steady to score an invaluable win over North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville on Friday night.
Wingers Suliasi Vunivalu and Josh Addo-Carr polished off the Storm's best attacks while as a side the Storm kept an injury hit Cowboys quiet in a 26-8 win.
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The Cowboys grabbed an early lead before Suliasi Vunivalu stole it back. The Storm keeping North Queensland scoreless in the second half to snare a 18 point win.
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Storm grab 16th win of the season
The Cowboys grabbed an early lead before Suliasi Vunivalu stole it back. The Storm keeping North Queensland scoreless in the second half to snare a 18 point win.
Vunivalu scored two tries, both from Billy Slater assists, and Addo-Carr did the same while centre Will Chambers also found the line as the Storm went another step closer to securing a top-four position.
Even with star five-eighth Cameron Munster out, the Storm brought back rookie playmaker Ryley Jacks and went on with the job.
Addo-Carr made a big error in the opening minutes, dropping a high ball which was almost turned into a try before the touchline saved the Storm.
On five minutes the winger they call "Fox" turned passes from Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater into a try of his own, using his speed to split two defenders and then diving into the corner to score his 15th try of the campaign.
The Cowboys were in the wars losing star forward Gavin Cooper to a calf injury then outside back Antonio Winterstein went down with a leg injury attempting to tackle Addo-Carr during his try.
But the home side were awarded excellent field possession after a long kick from Cronk was deemed to have gone out on the full then some big runs took the ball right to the line before hooker Jake Granville burst over to score.
The conversion made it 6-4 after 13 minutes, and they expanded the lead with a penalty goal soon after.
Still, the Storm knuckled down defensively and stopped their turnovers - and it paid dividends as the Storm put together back-to-back sets and forced it to the right where Chambers and Vunivalu had a two-on-one, with the centre bursting over to score the second try.
Cameron Smith converted to make it 10-8 after 27 minutes.
Neither side could grab the ascendancy heading towards halftime until a late attack from the Storm saw Slater put in a grubber kick which found Vunivalu in space for his 16th try this season and a 16-8 half time lead.
The Storm could have had a try to start the second half after a turnover from the kickoff by the Cowboys, but the home side held on and this lead to a stalemate in the next 20 minutes with the Cowboys having the best of the field position but not being able to score.
Just after the hour mark Slater almost went over but had his grubber kick stopped by Kyle Feldt, then a fumble saw the Storm get two straight sets deep in the Cowboys half.
The pressure proved too much and Slater put in another perfect grubber kick which went behind the Cowboys line and saw Vunivalu, who was held by Kane Linnett, still getting into position to score his second try and 17th for the season.
Cameron Smith converted from the right touchline to push the lead to 22-8 after 65 minutes and with six minutes to play the Storm rested Smith with the job done.
Just as he did last game, Addo-Carr topped off the win with a breakaway try in the final minute to claim his 16th score of the season.
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