Storm edge Rabbitohs 17-10 at ANZ Stadium AS Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy put it last night after the NRL's version of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman's Rumble in the Jungle, this one delivered on the hype. Billy Slater was sin-binned for a professional foul during a frantic final five minutes as the challengers South Sydney gave champions Melbourne Storm one roller-coaster ride to victory. But come big plays in big games, nobody does it better than ice-cool Melbourne Storm halfback Cooper Cronk. MATCH CENTRE: Rabbitohs v Storm game stats Aside from laying on the opening two tries for Kevin Proctor and Mahe Fonua, the Queensland and Australian halfback slotted a field goal with three minutes remaining to put the icing on another clinical disposal of the Bunnies. But with South Sydney riding the wave of their best start to a season since they last won the premiership in 1971, they went down fighting. Sam Burgess was in everything, Adam Reynolds tried a couple of kick-chase plays with the game on the line and they never stopped trying. Kevin Proctor celebrates after scoring the opening try for the Storm. The scary thing about Melbourne's 6-0 start to the season is captain Cameron Smith reckons there's no way the premiers are looking for the rocking chair or their slippers just yet. "Being 6-0 is a pretty good spot to be in, but the good thing about the way we're going about things is we're not satisfied with the way we're playing," Smith said. We're obviously very pleased with results, but I still think we've got our best footy ahead of us. You could feel on the field that we're still a little bit off the mark with a few of the things we want to do. We're not putting the feet up and putting the feet in the slippers just because we haven't lost a match. We're just continuing to work hard. Souths showed glimpses of being worthy contenders for the title. There was John Sutton's ball-and-all tackle on Proctor close to the line in the 13th minute. There were cool heads under pressure as the Storm ramped up the heat with three repeat sets on their tryline in the opening half. There was Greg Inglis' risky bat-back play into his own in-goal to deny Cronk a booming 40/20 kick in the 16th minute. Greg Inglis makes a charge for the Rabbitohs. But the Storm are the best in the business when it comes to applying the blow torch repeatedly and the Rabbitohs were forced to defend five repeat sets midway through the opening half. Eventually they cracked, with Cronk and Ryan Hinchcliffe combining to send Proctor over. The downside for the Storm were the injuries picked up by Hinchcliffe and bench forward Siosaia Vave. "That's a huge blow for us," coach Craig Bellamy said. Hinchcliffe's a hugely underrated player. I wouldn't say he's the first picked at our club, but after about three or four of them he's the next picked. The guys love playing with him. He never ever lets you down, he's as tough as nails, you could just see tonight the way he made the first two line-breaks for us and then he set up the first try. Storm skipper Cameron Smith finds some space. Trailing 12-0 at halftime, South Sydney needed a lift. Enter Reynolds and Inglis to combine for the home side's opening try. But just as the Bunnies appeared to have hit the game-on button, an error allowed Melbourne to assume control. Storm five-eighth Gareth Widdop went powering down a short side from close range and caught centre Beau Champion and Reynolds napping in defence. Widdop's try made it 16-6 and the Storm were back in the zone. It was worthy of the build-up, I thought. Ball control from both sides was really good and some of the defence on the trylines was outstanding from both teams," Bellamy said. I thought it really lived up to the hype. Rabbitohs winger Andrew Everingham dives over to score a try. MELBOURNE 17 (M Fonua K Proctor G Widdop tries C Smith 2 goals C Cronk field goal) bt SOUTH SYDNEY 10 (A Everingham G Inglis tries A Reynolds goal) at ANZ Stadium. Crowd: 32,671.