Academy Defeats Melbourne Storm's Rising Stars

Written on the 25 February 2014 by SWSAS

In what was a hard fought battle across all playing positions, our local South West Sydney Academy of Sport team defeated the might of the Melbourne Storm 22 -16, in its NSW Harold Matthews Cup round 2 fixture, at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.

In front of a very partisan and vocal crowd the Academy got off to a flying start with Luke Wright scoring after 7 minutes and Dhenzel Tavui crossing the line 20 minutes later giving SWSAS a well-deserved 12-0 lead. A Melbourne resurgence and a quick try before half time saw Melbourne go into half time chasing SWSAS 4-12.

SWSAS opened its account 5 minutes into the second half with Mark Critchley showing his individual  skills to put a further 4 points on the scoreboard for SWSAS to lead by 10.

The last 25 minutes of the game were nail-biting with Melbourne storming home and scoring three unconverted tries, putting them within two points of SWSAS with 10 minutes to go.

The younger Academy team pulled together and threw everything it had at the Storm and with 4 minutes to go it’s persistence paid off with Lachlan Mclean crossing the line, for a well-deserved 22-16 win. The Academy takes on the competition front running favourites the Penrith Panthers next week in what will be a tough round 3 fixture, for our local Academy team.