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Melbourne extended its NRL winning streak to seven after Cameron Smith led the competition leaders to a dour 16-14 victory over St George Illawarra in Wollongong on Thursday night.
- Melbourne has a provisional eight-point lead at the top of the ladder courtesy of the victory over the Dragons
- Both sides were missing several players due to State of Origin duty and injury
- It was a milestone match for Storm coach Craig Bellamy, who recorded his 300th NRL win
With both sides hit hard by the representative drain, Smith — playing his 399th first-grade match — guided his side superbly with his kicking game and control.
In wet and windy conditions, the match went down to the wire and a Smith penalty goal with five minutes remaining gave his side the victory, provisionally extending their lead at the top of the ladder to eight points.
Dragons back rower Jacob Host was penalised when he escorted Jahrome Hughes off the ball, allowing Smith to kick the winning two points.
The Storm were missing 627 NRL matches worth of talent with six players away with Queensland and NSW — Josh Addo-Carr, Will Chambers, Dale Finucane, Felise Kaufusi, Cameron Munster and Christian Welch.
But the Dragons had 1,224 NRL matches of experience missing, with Corey Norman, Ben Hunt, Tyson Frizell, Tariq Sims and Paul Vaughan on Origin duty and James Graham (ankle) and Gareth Widdop (shoulder) recovering from injury.
After the Storm led 8-6 at the break, the Dragons got themselves on level pegging via a Jai Field penalty goal.
The Storm were soon back in front after they went 60 metres with Nelson Asofa-Solomona producing a slick flick pass in traffic to put Jahrome Hughes underneath the black dot.
When Mikaele Ravalawa ran through Jesse and Kenny Bromwich, he set up a grandstand finish with 10 minutes remaining and scores locked at 14-14.
But the Storm found a way to win as Craig Bellamy recorded his 300th NRL victory, becoming the fourth coach behind Wayne Bennett, Tim Sheens and Brian Smith to achieve the feat.
Earlier, Jeremy Latimore crossed for his first try of the year to give the Dragons a surprise 6-0 lead.
The Storm were back on top at 8-6 by half-time after Joe Stimson ran past Tim Lafai and spun over the line.
But they should have led by more after winning the first-half penalty count 7-2 and having 24 shots inside the opposition 20 metre zone compared to the Dragons' six.
Meanwhile, Field will come under scrutiny from the match review committee for a crusher tackle on Stimson.
ABC/AAP
Topics: sport, rugby-league, nrl, wollongong-2500, kogarah-2217, melbourne-3000
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