League: Warriors giant-killers again

The Storm's Matt King is tackled by Micheal Luck (No 12) and Steve Price. Quinn Rooney / Getty Images

Warriors 24 Storm 20

The Warriors showed again they can win games in tight situations, upsetting NRL leaders Melbourne Storm at Olympic Park, Melbourne.

It was a giant-killing win. The Storm were about to celebrate winning the minor premiership but a try to Warriors fullback Brent Webb seven minutes from fulltime brought their amazing run of 11 straight wins and 15 successive home victories to an end.

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary thought the Storm might be vulnerable, especially after the Bulldogs lost to Brisbane on Friday night.

They had also had a distracting week over the arm-wrestle with the Gold Coast Titans for the services of winger Steve Turner.

"It was probably a good time to get them," Cleary said.

"On Friday night, when the Bulldogs lost they probably had some part of their thought processes looking at the finals.

What pleased Cleary was the way his team kept their positive focus on Saturday night, despite the Storm starting well and scoring an early try through winger Matt Geyer.

"We were under the pump early, but were able to hang in. If we had conceded a second try early in the game, things might have been different, but we hung in there well.

"It was the same as against Cronulla a couple of weeks ago when we scored the winning try late in the match.

"That's a really good sign, because they were the sort of games we were losing earlier in the year."

The Warriors hit back with a try to centre Simon Mannering and it was tit-for-tat with Turner replying for the Storm and Warriors left winger Manu Vatuvei charging over after receiving a brilliant cutout pass from captain Steve Price.

Matt King put the Storm back in front 14-12 just before halftime but the Warriors had been desperately unlucky to be denied a try to Webb earlier.

He dived spectacularly to put a hand on the ball just inside the goal area after a grubber kick by Grant Rovelli, but the video referee ruled he had not grounded the ball.

"Luckily it didn't hurt us any in the end and there were probably a couple of calls that went our way in the second half, so I guess they even out, but it was hard to understand," said Cleary.

Webb responded by scoring early in the second half, but Greg Inglis crossed for the Storm and his side held their lead until Webb latched on to a pass after Vatuvei outsped the Melburnians down the left flank.

Cleary admitted Vatuvei gave him palpitations by muffing at least three kick-offs from the Storm but the big winger bounced back each time.

The coach was also impressed with the performance of promising halfback Grant Rovelli, who played confidently under pressure.

- NZPA