Hughes steers Storm home in try feast against Dragons

A first half Will Warbrick hat-trick and a double by strike second-rower Eliesa Katoa helped the Storm come from behind to down the Dragons 38-28 and keep their top four hopes alive.

Melbourne trailed 18-4 before Warbrick crossed for two tries and fellow winger Xavier Coates scored in an eight-minute period before halftime and they again had to come from behind in the second term.

Kiwis halfback Jahrome Hughes scored a try and produced three try assists to help steer the Storm home and enable them to leapfrog the Sharks into fourth place, while the Dragons remain in danger of finishing with the wooden spoon.

Hughes try followed a jolting tackle on St George Illawarra halfback Ben Hunt by Katoa, who scored a second half double, produced a try assist for Warbrick, made six tackle breaks and 28 tackles.

Warbrick crossed for his first try in the ninth minute after quick hands from Harry Grant at dummy half and Hughes to shift the ball to the winger close to the Dragons line.

However, the home side quickly hit back through second-rower Billy Burns, who dummied past Grant and other defenders to score with an angled run off a pass from centre Mat Feagai.

Hunt’s conversion put St George Illawarra ahead 6-4 and they extended their lead soon after when the Test and Origin star have a short ball to fullback Tyrell Sloan, who stepped his way through the Melbourne defence to score in the 18th minute.

A try to Dragons five-eighth Talatau Amone just eight minutes later had the Storm needing to mount their biggest comeback in six years to overcome the 14-point deficit but by half-time the visitors had managed to draw level.

Warbrick’s 30th minute try came off the back of a penalty and three six-again re-starts before Melbourne’s spine of Hughes, Cameron Munster, Bronson Garlick and Nick Meaney combined to put the former All Blacks rugby sevens star over in the corner.

The Olympic silver medallist completed his hat-trick four minutes later after an overhead pass from second-rower Katoa created space for him to race 30 metres down the touchline and evade the would be tackles of Amone and Sloan to score in the corner.

With all the action on the Storm’s right side, left winger Coates came infield looking for the ball and levelled the scores at 18-18 after a spectacular 60-metre run through the middle of the ruck before finishing in Warbrick’s corner.

The Dragons started the second half as they had played for much of the first stanza, with Burns collecting his second try in the 44th minute after Warbrick was unable to hold a Hunt cross field kick.

However, the Storm quick re-asserted dominance with Katoa scoring two tries in four minutes to put the visitors ahead 30-24 in the 55th minute.

Fiji winger Mikaele Ravalawa put the Dragons back within sight of an upset win when he scored in the 74th minute but Hunt missed the sideline conversion and the Storm retained a two-point lead.

Hughes sealed the win when he picked up a loose ball and strolled over the tryline after a heavy shot by Katoa on Hunt just two minutes before fulltime.