Quote:

 

The Melbourne Storm under-20's clinched a nail-biting grand final over the Wests Tigers, holding on for the last five minutes to win 24-22.

It's only the second year of the Toyota Cup competition and the Storm went into the game hot favourites after finishing the season in third place.

Inspirational fullback, Gareth Widdop scored two tries, including the 75th minute match winner.

The final brought out the best and worst of both sides as they struggled for consistent discipline and momentum.

Neither team showed any nerves in the opening minutes with clean possession and precision kicking stifling the usually free-scoring National Youth Competition team.

The Tigers were the first to break the deadlock when the pressure on the Melbourne goal-line became too great.

Tigers' fullback, Jake Mullaney beat Melbourne fullback Widdop to a grubber kick in-goal.

Mullaney is the leading try scorer in the Under-20's competition and would continue to be a threat in attack.

Melbourne made a quick reply when Widdop threw a perfectly weighted cut-out ball to winger Matt Duffie to score in the corner.

Five minutes later, a quick play the ball by Sam Joe and James Woolford took the short pass option of lock Billy Rogers.

The Tigers weren't expecting it to come to Rogers and he went over the line uncontested.

In the 32nd minute, a try to Tigers replacement Rhys Curran and a conversion by Mullaney gave them a two-point lead.

The Tigers were looking ominous but an error gave the Storm possession with four minutes remaining in the half and Widdop made them pay, making a scintillating run down the right wing for a try.

In the 40th minute, Kevin Proctor drew the defence allowing Joe and Justin O'Neill space to score and Widdop slotted his first conversion to bring the Storm back to an 18-10 lead at half-time.

The second half began slowly for the Storm, Rogers suffered a dislocated shoulder but had it put back in on the field and continued playing.

The Storm were dominating around the rucks and the Tigers were only managing to stay in the game due to the kicking game of Robert Lui but the Storm's attacking structure wasn't nearly as effective.

Against the run of play, Simon Dwyer broke the line and had Mullaney running in support for a try under the posts.

The Tigers were being buoyed by the Parramatta crowd's support and their intensity lifted.

Mullaney was proving too much to handle for the Melbourne defence and made a 30 metre run from dummy-half before offloading to Lui for an easy try.

The Tigers led 22-18 and errors started to creep in as a tight finish became inevitable.

Tigers lock Matt Hyland knocked the ball on from the kick restart but again the Storm couldn't capitalise.

The Storm's attacking structure were being frustrated but persistence paid off when a last tackle grubber kick by Luke Kelly was pounced on by Widdop in the 75th minute.

Widdop made the pressure kick to take the lead 24-22 with less than five minutes to play.

The Tigers threw it around in the hope of a quick break but the defence held firm to give the Storm their first win for the day.

Storm 24 (Tries: Widdop 2, Duffie, Rogers, O'Neill. Goals: Widdop 2) def. Tigers 22 (Tries: Mullaney 2, Curran, Lui. Goals: Mullaney 3)