| schema:articleBody
| - Veteran skipper Cameron Smith bagged 14 points as Melbourne Storm held off a desperate late surge to scrap past Penrith Panthers 26-20 and win the Australian rugby league grand final Sunday. Both sides scored four tries in front of 40,000 socially distanced fans at ANZ Stadium in Sydney -- the maximum allowed under coronavirus restrictions -- as Storm snapped Penrith's 17-game winning streak. Smith, 37, was at the heart of the action in his 430th National Rugby League game -- potentially his last amid speculation he could call it quits. He nailed three conversions and two penalties, and scored a try as the Storm took an early stranglehold, going into the break with a 22-0 lead. But the Panthers refused to go away and powered back into contention in the second stanza. "It's a great feeling, but jeez, we did it the hard way there," said Smith. "As an organisation and a team we have admired what Penrith have done this year, to win 17 in a row is a special effort on top of what everyone's been through this year." "You've got to give credit to Penrith," he added. "But I'm just really proud of this (Storm) squad. We haven't been home for five months and it's a remarkable effort to be here tonight and get a victory." In was their fourth premiership, having also won in 1999, 2012 and 2017. They were triumphant in 2007 and 2009 but the titles were stripped from the club because it breached salary cap rules. The final culminated a rollercoaster season with the 16-club league suspended after just two rounds in March due to the pandemic. Cash-strapped but hugely popular, the sport rolled out an emergency rescue package to ensure all clubs could stay afloat and play finally resumed in late May behind closed doors with teams in bio-secure bubbles. Storm got off to an electric start Sunday with a penalty try for Justin Olam on three minutes after Tyrone May was judged to have kicked the ball out of his hands as he dived for the line. Smith converted and the Panthers' misery was compounded minutes later when they had a try disallowed. Both sides pressed hard and the Panthers had plenty of possession but Smith nailed two penalties then big Fijian winger Suliasi Vunivalu intercepted a pass and sprinted almost the length of the field for Storm's second try. In another blow to the Panthers, Smith crossed for their third on the hooter to send his team into the break with a commanding 22-0 lead. When lightning-fast full back Ryan Papenhuyzen sprinted 80 metres five minutes after the restart for try number four it appeared all over. But the gutsy Panthers refused to give up and produced four unanswered tries -- to Brian To'o, Stephen Crichton, Josh Mansour and Nathan Cleary -- in an exciting finale. mp
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)