‘Never do that again’: Sua Faalogo learns painful lesson after ‘lair’ act

Sua Faalogo’s NRL career is still in its infancy but the youngster has learned a painful lesson after a spectacular put-down

Melbourne Storm fullback Sualauvi Faalogo has had another starring performance in his side’s 38-24 win over the Warriors in New Zealand, but he’s also learned a painful lesson.

Despite going down 14-0 early in the match, the Storm romped back to claim a 16th straight win against the Warriors, with New Zealand’s last victory coming in 2015.

That’s 3261 days, the longest active head-to-head losing run in the NRL.

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The Warriors will be rueing the missed opportunity after dominating the opening exchanges in wet conditions in front of yet another sold out crowd at Go Media Stadium in Auckland.

But the 14-0 lead evaporated almost as fast as it was set up as the Storm bounced back to take a 20-14 lead at halftime.

The Warriors cut the lead to 20-18 just after the break and the match seemed to be waiting for someone to open it up.

Enter Faalogo.

In just his seventh NRL game, Faalogo cut through the line out wide before launching into a swan dive for the corner.

“That is quite a leap, may have dislocated his shoulder in scoring,” Andrew Voss said. “Higher than I even saw you jump for a try Corey.”

“He’s certainly not well, he might have just winded himself, the swan dive to finish,” Corey Parker added. “The swan dive gets him straight in the bread basket.”

Faalogo with the swan dive. Photo: Fox Sports

Voss replied: “His score out of 10, the dismount might be the problem … that’s embarrassing,”

But Parker said Faalogo would learn he just has to get up and “play the tough guy” if he wants to do the swan dive.

Voss then added: “He is an amazing talent, I’m not going to stop him doing that — they may have a word with him but I’m not going to say don’t do it”.

However, Storm fans were willing to put a ban on it.

One fan wrote: “Please, Sua, Never do that swan dive again. Don’t injure yourself for no reason.”

Another commented: “Haha dumb s**t with the swan dive, bet he doesn’t do that again.”

“Suaaaaaaaa. A little bit of lairing up by the Melbourne custodian with his trademark swan dive,” another fan wrote.

A fourth added: “Nothing I love more than watching someone swan dive when they score and winding themselves for being a show pony.”

But the winding didn’t slow Faalogo down as he tallied 141m from 13 runs, two line breaks and a line break assist, as well as sealing the win with his second try in the 78th minute to seal the result.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy admitted his team had started poorly but was proud of the grit they showed to bounce back.

“With all due respect, obviously, they played well in that first 15 minutes, but we didn’t handle it at all well,” he said.

“I think we completed one set in the first 15 minutes so, I can’t remember us starting that badly, to be quite honest.

“To take that into account, but obviously the guys showed a lot of resilience to come back and just build ourselves back into the game again. And it was probably a bit of a surprise that we’re in front at halftime.”

Storm skipper Harry Grant echoed his coach’s comments.

“I think, like Craig said, our discipline let us down (early),” he said. “We didn’t have any field position. Kept turning a bit of cheap ball there, and you give quality side like the Warriors that, with a crowd behind them, they made us pay with some points.

“I think real credit to our playing group. I think everyone was very calm, patient, knew what we had to do to get ourselves back in the game.

“It wasn’t too long after that that we did get ourselves back in the game, and it happened pretty quickly, and we just went on with that. So, I’m very proud of the performance of our group.”

The Storm continue to top the NRL ladder after the result while the Warriors remain mid-table in a group of six teams on 15 or 16 points.

With Dave Lyall, Newswire

Originally published as ‘Never do that again’: Sua Faalogo learns painful lesson after ‘lair’ act