St George Illawarra duo Ben Hunt and Jaydn Su’A have overpowered Melbourne's awesome foursome on their long-awaited reunion to seal a crucial two points for the Dragons.
Playmaker Hunt and his Queensland State of Origin teammate Su’A connected for two tries in the Dragons’ 18-16 win at AAMI Park on Saturday night, propelling them back into the NRL top eight.
History was stacked against the Saints.
The victory was their first win in Melbourne this millennium, breaking a 16-game losing streak against the Storm on the road.
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan said it was a really important achievement for the club.
"It's always enjoyable when you come up against those good sides and you get that feeling early on that your team is on and you can compete with them and just go out and enjoy your footy," he said.
It was just the league-leading Storm’s second loss in 13 games with Cameron Munster, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jahrome Hughes and Harry Grant starting in their spine.
Five-eighth Munster, in his first start back after a two-and-a-half month injury lay-off, showed why he is one of the game’s premier players in the opening set, breaking through the Dragons’ line with a dazzling 40-metre run.
But after Hughes slipped Grant through to get Melbourne off to an early lead, their star-studded spine had an off night by their lofty standards.
The Storm's engine room was uncharacteristically error-prone, exasperating coach Craig Bellamy.
"It was really disappointing," he said.
"Our completions were really poor: just over 50 per cent half an hour into the game.
"You're not going to beat teams, especially big physical teams like St George, if you give them more of the ball. You're gonna pay a price and we paid the price."
Against arguably the league's best halves pairing, Hunt showed his class.
With the Storm defence sliding frantically across field in front of him, the St George Illawarra captain dropped a pinpoint grubber kick on his right boot to slip in Su’A for his first try of the night.
The powerful back-rower was back in the thick of it soon after. He offloaded to Jacob Liddle who slipped fullback Tyrell Sloan through the middle of the broken Storm defensive line.
Sloan sized up Papenhuyzen, shaped to kick, went the other way and skipped past the Melbourne fullback, who was sent spinning in the wrong direction.
"Jaydn just tried so hard tonight and ran hard and made his tackles," Flanagan said.
"That's the Jaydn we know, that sort of form that got him into Origin at the start of the season."
Munster managed to snag a try assist just before the break.
Sliding to the left, the five-eighth shaped to pass, saw Dragons defenders Zac Lomax and Max Feagai stepping up, and dropped a little grubber kick in the space left in behind.
Winger Grant Anderson ran through to plant the ball down and close the gap two points.
But Ben Hunt once again made the Melbourne defence look silly after the interval, dummying past Shawn Blore before finding Su’A to complete his brace.
After a slow start to the second period, the Storm surged back in the last 20 minutes.
Grant completed his brace on the hour mark.The Melbourne hooker saw Sloan dilly-dallying back to his defensive line and burrowed through the gap left behind with a last-tackle dummy-half run.
But the desperate Dragons defence withstood the Storm barrage in the closing minutes to seal a famous win.
