A Josh Dugan ankle injury further soured a forgettable start to the NRL season for St George Illawarra as they succumbed 12-4 to Melbourne at Jubilee Oval on Monday night.
Dugan was one of the few Dragons who tested the Storm defence in a impotent attacking effort from the home side, before he was carried off in the 69th minute and didn't return.
Melbourne put in a solid defensive effort, captain Cameron Smith the cornerstone of that with 51 tackles.
But despite a mountain of possession before a crowd of 10,028 the Dragons only had a 49th minute try to former Fijian porter Eto Nabuli on his NRL debut to show for their efforts.
Will Chambers forced his way over from close range in the 60th minute for the matchwinner after the Storm led 6-0 at halftime.
A Ryan Hinchcliffe try 10 minutes from time was disallowed after Billy Slater took out Jason Nightingale in the lead-up.
A largely uneventful first half was dominated by the Dragons who enjoyed 64 per cent of possession and 40 tackles in the Storm's 20m zone but were still unable to score.
The sole first half points came when Young Tonumaipea chased down a fifth minute Cooper Cronk kick and Smith converted.
Jesse Bromwich was put on report for a high tackle on Dugan in the 28th minute.
Storm interchange forward Felise Kaufusi was also placed on report in his NRL debut for attacking the legs of a kicking Benji Marshall in the 32nd minute.
Dale Finucane will come under some scrutiny from the match review panel for a high tackle on Dragon Jack De Belin just after the break.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy was impressed with his team's defensive performance.
"I was really happy with our effort in defence," he said.
"It was something that we were really disappointed with last year, so it's something we have put plenty of work into it.
"Especially in the last 20 minutes of the first half, they keep coming and we keep turning up.
"Having said that we don't want to be tackling like that every week, we made it pretty hard on ourselves, we just keep turning over the ball and giving cheap penalties away."
Dragons coach Paul McGregor said the lack of impetus in his attack wasn't a major worry.
"I was disappointed with our attack, we had a lot of opportunities with the ball," he said.
"But it wasn't a reflection of how we have practised.
"We held the d-line (defence) together well, we completed at about 86 per cent.
"It was the first game, our attack wasn't a major concern."
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