Bellamy responds to Munster’s brain snap

The Melbourne Storm is back on top of the table following their fifth thrilling win of the season, but it could have been a very different story after they were forced to survive 10 minutes with 12 men after a moment of madness from Cameron Munster.

The 18-12 win over the Roosters wasn’t pretty but it featured one of their most resilient defensive performances, with the hosts failing to register a single line break on Thursday night.

That included a period with a numerical advantage after Munster was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul on James Tedesco who was returning the ball from a 20m restart.

The Storm was adamant that halfback Jahrome Hughes was dragged down after he put in a kick, which is why the defensive line wasn’t set and Munster had to tackle his Kangaroos teammate to prevent a try at the other end.

Bellamy responds to Munster’s brain snap

“I don’t think he’s even realised that he’s been in the sin bin yet, but I’m sure he’ll wake up at some stage,” Craig Bellamy said, proud that his side kept the Roosters scoreless for those 10 minutes.

“That was disappointing. The referee made a decision but we decided that we wanted to argue about the decision.

“He’s not going to change his mind, so just get back the 10.

“It made it hard for the rest of the team, but we did a really good job defensively for most of the 80 minutes.

“I thought we looked reasonably comfortable the whole time, but I thought we went up an extra notch when we realised we only had 12 men.

“Handling the Roosters with 13 men is tough enough, but with 12 to do that for 10 minutes was a plus for us.”

The Storm couldn’t challenge the decision because they had wasted their review in the opening few minutes, with skipper Harry Grant lamenting that they didn’t play to the whistle at a crucial point in the game.

“I thought they were probably going to review it, and that’s why we probably hesitated a little bit,” he said.

“We probably fell victim to that and didn’t play to the whistle and then we felt ourselves out of position. Munster probably has to make that play otherwise potentially Tedesco goes the length.

“He made that play and we handled it pretty well in terms of getting on with it.”

The Storm survived that period and then kicked clear late in the game when Xavier Coates broke the deadlock with another brilliant solo try to continue his hot start to the season.

“I think he’s been in our top three or four players every game this year,” Bellamy said.

“He’s come a long way, and I’m really proud of what he’s done.

“He hasn’t got lucky, he just keeps working hard.”