Maika Sivo in strife as Magic Munster annihilates Parramatta in 64-10 thumping
Cameron starred for the Storm. Smith or Munster. Take your pick. But it was all Cameron for Melbourne who embarrassed the Eels 64-10 in front of 41,612 people in a Suncorp Stadium triple header on Saturday night.
Eels coach Brad Arthur left his players with no doubt what he thought of his team’s performance.
Arthur labelled them “soft” as he watched on as his side were embarrassed 64-10 in front of 41,612 people in a Suncorp Stadium triple header on Saturday night.
“We went from a tough performance last week,” Arthur said. “In the space of seven days to our softest performance. You’re only as good as your last game - that was rubbish.
“We came up with soft options. We weren’t prepared to play these blokes for 80 minutes.”
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Arthur said he had a conversion with his players after the game where they agreed with the soft sentiment and said they were embarrassed.
When he asked them why they could not find an answer.
“Mentally we have to harden up.”
STORM FORCE
Cameron starred for the Storm. Smith or Munster. Take your pick. But it was all Cameron for Melbourne. The Storm duo who were said to have engaged in a war of words during their last start loss to Cronulla.
This coupled with a Craig Bellamy post-game serve set up a magical performance for the Storm who raced in 11 tries to two.
As the Eels revoked memories of their wooden spoon run last year to hand them one of their worst defeats in the club’s history but not enough to overcome their biggest loss to the Storm which was a 64-4 drubbing in 2013.
Munster scored twice including the opening try in the 13th minute while it is remarkable to think Smith may be in career best form. He finished with a line break assist and try assist before he was given a spell with 15 minutes remaining.
The match ended with a length of the field effort from the Storm with Josh Addo-Carr racing 80 metres after a Ryan Papenhuyzen kick return to score.
“I’m happy with their response,” Storm coach Craig Bellamy said. “It’s a different side to what we’ve had in the past. There are some younger guys without a doubt.
I just want to be more a Storm team – what we’ve been since the inception of the Storm. I was not just happy but proud.
GUTHERSON BLOWS UP
Maika Sivo was sin-binned for a high tackle on Jahrome Hughes which left skipper Clint Gutherson fuming.
Sivo was binned for the reckless tackle where his shoulder went flush on Hughes’ head. The incident left Gutherson fuming as he drew a parallel with the Eels losing Daniel Alvaro for the match because of a high tackle against the Tigers two weeks ago.
“That is a bad call,” Gutherson said to referee Henry Perenara.
“Our player did not come back (two weeks ago). You can’t do this. We lost our player in the first minute. We were disadvantaged. They didn’t get ten in the bin.
“You can’t do that.”
Perenara’s reply? “I just did”.
Arthur had no problems with the call only saying he wanted consistency.
The sin-binning proved costly with the Storm crossing four times and five in 11 minutes in a second half onslaught.
Hughes - because of the concussion and short turnaround won’t play for the Storm against the Tigers on Thursday - scored a great individual try with the last play before half-time beating five defenders to score.
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SCOTT BACK
Curtis Scott shrugged off more than some off field issues with a 100 metre try. He pushed past three Eels players before carrying Blake Ferguson over the try line to score one of the best solo tries of the season to start the second half. Scott came from the field late, with a suspected broken foot.
“He played great tonight,” Bellamy said. “He is very disappointed with what looks like a reasonably major injury.”
NEW ROLE FOR GUTHO
Gutherson played the unfamiliar dummy half to start the game. Arthur started Reed Mahoney starting from the bench with Peni Terepo promoted. Gutherson attacked at dummy half before defending at fullback.
“It was to try and challenge them physically,” Arthur said. “Front-load all the effort physically and go after them.”
MELBOURNE 64 (J Addo-Carr 2 C Munster 2 K Bromwich B Croft D Finucane J Hughes R Papenhuyzen CScott S Vunivalu tries C Smith 9 W Chambers goals) bt PARRAMATTA 10 (S Lane M Sivo tries M Moses goal) at Suncorp Stadium.Referee: Henry Perenara, Jon Stone
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