NRL 2015: James Tedesco leads Tigers young guns in impressive upset of Melbourne

JAMES Tedesco is the new King of Tiger Town after the gun No. 1 helped the Tigers orchestrate one of the NRL upsets of the season against the Storm.

Tigers James Tedesco during the Wests Tigers v Melbourne Storm rugby league game at Leichhardt Oval, Sydney. Pic Brett Costello

JAMES Tedesco is the new King of Tiger Town after the gun No. 1 helped orchestrate one of the NRL upsets of the season.

Tedesco last night scored two tries and set up another two to lead the Wests Tigers to a 34-16 victory over a shell-shocked Melbourne Storm.

The win helped the Tigers briefly move off the bottom of the NRL ladder, and made sure Aaron Woods’ 100th game — and Pat Richards and Keith Galloway’s final games at spiritual Leichhardt Oval — all went to script.

FAIL: Woods’s banner balls up

James Tedesco’s superb performance against the Storm had a little bit of everything on Friday night.

Tedesco has been one of the rare shining lights at the joint venture, and proved a real handful again for legitimate title contenders Melbourne.

The 7419 fans who turned up to Leichhardt — the attendance no doubt suffered because of the Roosters-Bulldogs fixture less than 10km up the road at Allianz Stadium — feared the worst when Tedesco went down clutching his left knee just after the hour.

Having already suffered two serious knee injuries in his short career, Tedesco himself would have feared the worst. Woods obviously did because he came over to give his mate a kiss and pat on the cheek.

In fact, Tedesco bounced back to his feet and collected a lovely pass from Mitchell Moses to score his second try of the night and end the Storm’s hopes of moving into the top four.

Tedesco was happy with the victory, and said of his own game: “I was happy to get a couple of tries and few try assists, but the boys upfront really set it up for us. Melbourne are hard to contain, they’ve got a lot of dangerous players, but we did well.’’

Coach Jason Taylor and skipper Robbie Farah labelled Tedesco a “special player’’.

“I’d hate to think how much worse we’d be going if we didn’t have him here this year,’’ Farah said, who spoke on behalf of every Tigers’ supporter.

“And he’s only going to get better. In my opinion he’s already one of the best fullbacks in the competition, and he’ll be pushing for higher honours next year. He’s been outstanding for us this year. I’m just glad he’s still here at the Tigers.’’

Former Tigers Marika Koroibete looked ready to haunt the home crowd when he racked up the opening two tries of the night. On both occasions he brushed aside opposite David Nofoaluma.

But Koroibete was exposed just as many times in defence, first losing out in a foot race with Tedesco, then bobbling a Luke Brooks bomb to allow Dene Halatau to give the Tigers’ a 12-10 lead on the half-hour.

When Kevin Naiqama collected a pass when the Tigers spread the ball quickly to the right, the home side rose to their feet to give their team a standing ovation at halftime.

The Tigers had too often surrendered leads throughout the season — the fans on the Leichhardt hill would have had the Sunday afternoon Canberra capitulation on their minds — and the Storm would have backed themselves to reclaim the lead when they strolled over through Jesse Bromwich for a soft try.

But this was the Tigers’ night. They hit back through Super League-bound Richards, then Nofoaluma, and finally Tedesco.

Kevin Naiqama was good. So was Moses. The return of skipper Robbie Farah was always going to prove a huge boost.

But the star of the show was Tedesco.

The Tigers leapt ahead of Newcastle and Gold Coast on points differential. They don’t want the spoon. Tigers’ fans will consider this season a pass if they can finish the next five weeks with similar performances.

WESTS TIGERS 34 (J Tedesco 2 D Halatau K Naiqama D Nofoaluma P Richards tries P Richards 5 goals) beat MELBOURNE STORM 16 (M Koroibete 2 J Bromwich tries C Smith 2 goals) at Leichhardt Oval. Referee: Adam Devcich, Chris Sutton. Crowd: 7,419.

Originally published as NRL 2015: James Tedesco leads Tigers young guns in impressive upset of Melbourne