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The Storm toughed it out against the Warriors, coming from behind to win. (AAP: Hamish Blair)
The Melbourne Storm came from behind to record a 13-12 victory over the New Zealand Warriors. Earlier, the Sydney Roosters held on to beat the St George Illawarra Dragons 20-10 at the SCG.
Storm come from behind to beat the Warriors
A Brodie Croft field goal in the dying minutes has secured a tense 13-12 win for Melbourne over the Warriors in their Anzac Day clash at AAMI Park.
The halfback slotted a shaky match-winner from 35m out, with the ball hitting the upright before going through.
The Storm looked headed for just the third back-to-back home loss in the club's history before the Warriors' Isaiah Papali'i was penalised for holding down in the play the ball with four minutes remaining.
Third-string goal-kicker Cameron Munster, with Croft and Cameron Smith not kicking due to groin issues, locked up the match at 12-12 with a strike from directly in front.
And then Croft came good when it counted.
Backing up from their golden point loss to the Sydney Roosters, the Storm struggled to find any rhythm while the understrength Warriors looked hungry for a win.
Skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (hamstring) and halfback Blake Green (groin) were late withdrawals, while Solomone Kata dropped out of the side on compassionate grounds.
Kata's replacement, Patrick Herbert, impressed on debut.
In stark contrast to last year's 36-0 score, the Storm trailed the visitors 8-4 at halftime, continuing their worrying trend of slow starts.
They hit the front three minutes into the second half when Smith showed his vision and class to put through a grubber for fullback Jahrome Hughes, who crashed over the line.
However their lead only lasted four minutes before the Warriors were in front again, with the Storm defence caught short thanks to winger Suliasi Vunivalu rushing out of the line.
Peta Hiku spotted the overlap and sent a long ball out to Ken Maumalo to touch down.
Melbourne's only try of the first half was started and finished by Munster.
The five-eighth kicked cross-field to Josh Addo-Carr, with the winger batting it back across into the arms of Munster, who closed the gap to 8-4.
The Warriors continued to chance their arm while the Storm fumbled around, uncharacteristically falling off tackles and dropping balls.
But they did enough to keep in touch with the Warriors, who have now lost three straight.
Storm skipper Smith was awarded the Anzac Medal for best on ground.
Roosters hold to beat the Dragons at the SCG
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The Roosters withstood a late comeback from the Dragons to seal victory. (AAP: Craig Golding)
The Sydney Roosters have logged their best start to an NRL season in 20 years after holding off St George Illawarra to win 20-10 in an Anzac Day thriller.
Front-rower Sio Siua Taukeiaho was the unlikely hero when he shrugged off a couple of weak attempted tackles and crossed for the match-winner in the 77th minute.
After Matt Dufty spilled a regulation kick, Taukeiaho charged through James Graham and Jacob Host to score.
It was rich reward for the New Zealand international who finished with 256 metres and six tackle busts to cement his position as one of the form forwards of the competition this year.
In front of a bumper crowd of 38,414 at the SCG, the Roosters moved to six wins from their opening seven rounds — their best start since 1999.
The Dragons looked dead and buried after they slumped to be 14-0 down at halftime on the back of the Roosters enjoying 66 per cent of possession, only to come flying back into the contest.
After Zac Lomax crossed, Dufty blew the game open with a sensational solo try and early leader for four-pointer of the season.
Fed the ball 35 metres out from his own line, he hit full flight and danced around six defenders — including leaving James Tedesco on the ground and clutching at the air — to go over next to the posts to reduce the deficit to just four.
However the Dragons number one soon went from hero to villain when he spilled a Cooper Cronk grubber to hand over possession and the Roosters sealed their sixth straight victory.
The Dragons were forced to toil without halfback Ben Hunt for the final 13 minutes after he left the field with what appeared to be a left arm injury.
Earlier, Mitchell opened the scoring after Lomax spilled a Cronk bomb and Daniel Tupou pounced and scooped it on to the Roosters star centre.
It appeared Mitchell had his second four minutes later however it was overruled by the bunker because of an obstruction.
Lomax was denied due to a forward pass before Angus Crichton crashed over after singling out Corey Norman to make it 14-0 at halftime.
However the Roosters went on to record their seventh win in the contest, which was first played in 2002.
AAP
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