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Ryan Papenhuyzen dominates as Melbourne crush Canterbury, Mitch Moses leads Parra to easy win over Saints

Papenhuyzen was in great touch for the Storm.  (Getty Images, Graham Denholm)

Round 4 of the NRL season has concluded with Melbourne and Parramatta running out huge winners over Canterbury and St George Illawarra respectively. 

Check out all the scores, news and stats below.

Storm 44 def Bulldogs 0

Melbourne's Ryan Papenhuyzen was back to his best with the flying mullet terrorising Canterbury in a thumping 44-0 NRL victory.

Superstar fullback Papenhuyzen scored four tries, with his six conversions making for a personal haul of 28 points - his highest ever at AAMI Park - on Sunday afternoon.

But he wasn't alone with the Storm running in eight unanswered tries in a commanding display.

Three came within 10 minutes when Papenhuyzen grabbed his third in the 51st minute after he finished a length of the field break by Jahrome Hughes, who scooped up Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton's grubber on the last tackle.

Melbourne winger Xavier Coates repeated the feat, dashing 90 metres, when an errant Burton pass bumped off the shoulder of Jake Averillo.

And then two minutes later, second rower Felise Kaufusi got in on the try-scoring action.

Team stats

The Bulldogs boasted the second-best defensive record leading into the round, only conceding 33 points in four rounds, but the Storm blew past that midway through the second half.

Of equal concern for the visitors was their inability to get across the tryline themselves.

They had 61 per cent of possession in the first half and at had three sets of six in the opening 20 minutes camped on Melbourne's line but never really looked like scoring.

Former Storm flyer Josh Addo-Carr, now lining up for the Bulldogs, came closest but Papenhuyzen and Hughes stopped him from grounding the ball. 

AAP

Eels 48 def Dragons 14

Mitchell Moses was at his mercurial best on Sunday as he led Parramatta to an impressive 48-14 win over St George Illawarra in the NRL.

The Eels halfback scored a double, kicked eight from eight goals and contributed two try assists as the Dragons were put to the sword in front of 19,711 fans at CommBank Stadium.

Parramatta, who moved up to fourth spot on the NRL ladder, would have felt hard done by when they went in with a narrow 12-8 lead at the break.

But a Moses-inspired second-half showing helped them see off the Dragons' threat and secure their third win of the season.

Team stats

The result will lead to questions over the Dragons' team selection after coach Anthony Griffin opted to drop fullback Tyrell Sloan and shift young five-eighth Junior Amone to the interchange bench after two straight losses.

As part of the reshuffle, Jack Bird moved to the No. 6 role as Moses Mbye was deployed at fullback.

It was a decision which backfired when Parramatta went on their first attacking raid deep in Dragons' territory with seven minutes gone.

Eels five-eighth Dylan Brown shaped to run wide but stepped back in and eased past Mbye for Parramatta's opener.

Brown was in a mood and a similar jinking run up the middle of the field brought Mbye into action and while the Dragons fullback was up to the task, his positioning proved his undoing.

Mbye was stuck at marker and a quick-thinking Moses took advantage by poking a kick over the defensive line and regathering to touch down for the Eels' second.

Zac Lomax converted a Jack Bird try and added a penalty on the stroke of half-time to cut the Eels' lead to 12-8 at the interval.

But the optimism of a Dragons comeback was short-lived when Tariq Sims and Mbye failed to deal with a Moses grubber towards the in-goal early in the second half.

Eels lock Nathan Brown pounced on the loose ball and another well-weighted Moses grubberkick a few minutes later was picked up by Parramatta hooker Reed Mahoney.

Moses fed Will Penisini down the right who turned the ball back inside for captain Clint Gutherson to go over in the 52nd minute before Waqa Blake intercepted a pass to Zac Lomax and ran 85 metres to score.

Blake and Sims exchanged tries before Moses rounded out the rout as Bryce Cartwright produced a sublime flick pass for the halfback to cross.

AAP

Fixtures

Ladder

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