Storm 44 Titans 4

MELBOURNE young guns Greg Inglis and Israel Folau blasted holes in the Gold Coast's play-off aspirations as they steered the Storm to a crushing win at Olympic Park last night. The home side ran in nine tries to one, with 21-year-old Inglis and 19-year-old Folau both scoring doubles.

The match was effectively over by half-time with Melbourne ahead 20-4, a lead that would have been more emphatic had skipper Cam Smith not been unusually off target with his boot, missing four conversions.

The Storm were shock losers to the New Zealand Warriors last round but rebounded to their brilliant best against the injury-struck Titans.

While Melbourne are eyeing their third successive NRL minor premiership, the Titans' season looks decidedly shaky after they failed to regain a top-eight position - this loss their sixth in their past seven starts.

The Titans showed plenty of courage but were missing a host of injured stars including Scott Prince and Luke Bailey, and the home side simply had too much strike power, with fullback Billy Slater also a standout in his return from a week's suspension.

After winger Steve Turner opened the scoring, Inglis's first touchdown was a special.

The star five-eighth showed his brute strength as he drifted across field and palmed off three would-be defenders before scoring.

Folau then also showed off his own power in a two-try effort, both times barrelling across the line and managing to get past centre Gavin Cooper and winger Jordan Atkins to get the ball down twice before the main break.

The Titans kept in touch through a late try in the half to exciting young winger Jordan Rapana, who took a long ball from five-eighth Mat Rogers.

But the Storm had the final say with their own winger Anthony Quinn charging on to a Cronk chip kick to score.

They then opened the second stanza in the same manner, this time Inglis out-leaping Preston Campbell to take a Cronk bomb.

Second-rower Ryan Hoffman also touched down before Folau was denied a hat-trick by the video referee.

Tries to veteran Matt Geyer and forward Jeremy Smith then rounded out the scoring.

Melbourne 44 (I Folau 2 G Inglis 2 M Geyer R Hoffman A Quinn J Smith S Turner tries C Smith 4 goals) bt Gold Coast 4 (J Rapana try) at Olympic Park. Referee: T De Las Heras.

AAP