If you just look at the statistics, it's hard to know how the Warriors ended up being comfortably beaten 38-24 by the Storm on Saturday night. They dominated possession, made more metres, almost twice as many tackle breaks and even had a higher effective tackle percentage.
The issue though, as coach Andrew Webster lamented post-match, was the game came down to key moments - and the Warriors found themselves on the wrong end of all of them.
"The boys were super-focused, committed; physically, I thought we were outstanding. We were super-strong, dominant, but every error had an unbelievably negative result from it," said Webster.
"You go through a game; you make errors and sometimes they hurt you. Tonight, everything did. It wasn't little, it was massive."
The ruthless Storm even punished what would normally be seen as good play, notably when Adam Pompey did extremely well to take a towering Jahrome Hughes bomb on his try line, only for Eliesa Katoa to brilliantly strip the ball and fall over the line for the Storm's opening try.
"From there on last plays, we didn't win any of them…we weren't calm enough and they capitalised, big time." said Webster.
It's especially frustrating as the Warriors had shot out to a 14-0 lead before Katoa's try. After that moment they simply picked their spots to lead 16-14 at the break.
However, it was another crafty bit of gamesmanship that really swung the contest, when Hughes baited Marcelo Montoya to infringe off a quick-tap penalty. The Warriors winger was sent to the sin bin, Sualauvi Faalogo and Xavier Coates ran through the empty space he'd left to score and quickly push the lead out to one the Storm could happily sit on till the final siren.
Grant Anderson of the Melbourne Storm scores a try against the Warriors. Photo: photosport
"I can't remember us starting that badly before, to be honest," said Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
"Obviously the guys showed a lot of resilience to come back; it was a bit of a surprise that we were up at half-time.
"We pulled ourselves together - we know the Warriors are a good side, so that was a pretty good effort."
Storm captain Harry Grant said his side stayed "patient and calm".
"We all knew what we had to do to get ourselves back in the game. It happened pretty quickly and I'm very proud of our group."
Bellamy singled out Kiwis stand off Hughes for special praise, after a masterful display in the halves.
"Jahrome's having the best season he's had with us. He's been a wonderful influence on the players."
Hughes said consistency was the key this season, which is paying off as the Storm retain first place on the NRL ladder with the win.
"I think I'm at the stage where I'm just trying to keep building my game. I feel like consistency is a massive thing for myself … just trying to work on playing well every single week."
The Storm have now won 16 games in a row against the Warriors, in what's currently the longest win streak in the NRL. The 12th-placed Warriors head to the Gold Coast next Saturday afternoon for a clash with the Titans.
