Friday 17 July 2020 13:58, UK
We recap the action from Friday's two NRL games, which saw Melbourne Storm and Wests Tigers both record convincing victories…
Two tries apiece from Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Josh Addo-Carr helped Melbourne make it four wins in a row as they overcame Gold Coast in Friday's first match.
Played at Sunshine Coast Stadium in Queensland due to the Storm's home city being under strict coronavirus lockdown protocols, the nominal hosts had too much for Justin Holbrook's Titans.
Cameron Munster's converted try, on the stand-off's return from injury got Melbourne up and running on 19 minutes, although Gold Coast did pull level seven minutes later thanks to Brian Kelly going over and Ashley Taylor converting.
It was all Melbourne from then on though as pacey winger Addo-Carr crossed just before the half-hour mark and interchange forward Asofa-Solomona ran in tries either side of half-time.
Brenko Lee and Brandon Smith both crossed in the second half as well, with Addo-Carr grabbing his second of the match four minutes from full-time.
Cameron Smith kicked six out of seven conversion attempts as well to ensure the Storm kept pace with the leaders in the NRL table.
Luciano Leilua and Luke Grant both went over twice as Wests celebrated their first match at Leichhardt Oval since March with a convincing win over Brisbane.
The visitors' miserable night was compounded by second row Corey Oates suffering a suspected broken leg in the second half as well.
A tense opening to the match gave way to the Tigers taking the lead when David Nofoaluma finished a quick attack from a scrum 10m out on nine minutes, followed five minutes later by Harry Grant darting over from dummy-half.
Leilua's first-half double which sandwiched a try from Benji Marshall, who was hugely influential in the halves on his return to the starting line-up, plus three conversions from Moses Mbye saw the Tigers lead 26-0 after the break.
There was no let-up when play resumed as Wests carved the Broncos defence open early in the second half, with Garner getting his first on 43 minutes and Sam McIntyre going over for his first try in the NRL three minutes later.
Billy Walters joined McIntyre in getting his first Wests try as well on 53 minutes after chasing down a kick from Marshall and Garner's second along with the conversion from Mbye wrapped up the scoring late on.
