{"id":324546,"date":"2023-08-19T12:17:58","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T12:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=324546"},"modified":"2023-08-19T13:58:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T13:58:23","slug":"bone-rattling-hit-on-hunt-ices-nervy-storm-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=324546","title":{"rendered":"Bone-rattling hit on Hunt ices nervy Storm win"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\ufefftorm<\/a> forward Eliesa Katoa snared two tries and laid a game-deciding, bone-rattling hit on Dragons<\/a> skipper Ben Hunt as the Storm survived a scare to win 38-28 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

A St George Illawarra win was still possible as the hosts, trailing 30-28 in Wollongong, worked their way up the field with two minutes left on the clock\ufeff, but Katoa floored Hunt with a thumping hit and Melbourne scored on the back of it.<\/p>\n

Hunt coughed up the ball and Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes swooped\ufeff, pouncing on the footy and racing away to score.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Matildas heartbreak lives on in bronze-medal match\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Rabbitohs rocked by death of grand final hero\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Star reveals 'bet' that led to drought-breaking winner<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Melbourne then bolstered its for and against with a penalty goal, closing out victory after slumping to an 18-4 deficit over the first 25 minutes of the contest.<\/p>\n

"That's a try for your defence," rugby league guru Phil Gould\ufeff said of the Katoa hit on the Nine broadcast.<\/p>\n

"Forget the two tries that he scored," added former Jillaroo Allana Ferguson on the Nine coverage.<\/p>\n

"Katoa with that tackle just won his team the game. There's no coming back from this now for the Dragons."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Katoa produced a colossal game, combining his two tries and massive hit with 28 tackles and \ufeffsix tackle breaks.<\/p>\n

The former Warrior muscled over from close range for his first try and was the beneficiary of a classy Hughes chip for his second four-pointer.<\/p>\n

Dragons\ufeff second-rower Billy Burns also scored a double, while Storm winger Will Warbrick crossed for a first-half hat-trick.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The most-impressive try of the night was scored by Melbourne flyer Xavier Coates, who stunned the home side with a spectacular solo effort late in the first half.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Queensland State of Origin representative burst through the St George Illawarra defence in Melbourne's half of the field, swerved past Dragons fullback Tyrell Sloan and held off Hunt to score in the right corner.<\/p>\n

The Storm will finish the round placed fourth on the ladder after leapfroffing the Sharks, who downed the Cowboys in North Queensland on Thursday night<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\ufefftorm forward Eliesa Katoa snared two tries and laid a game-deciding, bone-rattling hit on Dragons skipper Ben Hunt as the Storm survived a scare to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324546"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324549,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324546\/revisions\/324549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/324548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}