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Crisis hit Melbourne Rebels receive on-field blow
Melbourne’s off-field woes have been reflected in their round one Super Rugby Pacific performance against the ACT Brumbies, crashing to a 30-3 loss.
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With the financially-stricken club in administration and their future in the competition looking increasingly grim, the Rebels players had hoped to put the drama aside in their first home game of the season at AAMI Park on Friday night.
But a small crowd was left disappointed, with the Brumbies easily maintaining their status as Australia’s benchmark side leaving coach Kevin Foote feeling down-beat.
“It wasn’t our night – we just didn’t finish anything off tonight,” Foote said.
“We went into their 22 13 times for zero outcomes; so disappointed in our completion rate there, very disappointed.”
Foote didn’t want to blame the Rebels’ possible demise as a distraction heading into the game, saying the team had prepared as well as possible.
“They’re probably feeling they want to do something special, but they don’t have to do that, they just need to trust the system,” he said.
Melbourne had plenty of possession in the first half but let themselves down with loose play and errors while their highly-rated forward pack failed to fire.
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They struggled to give the Rebels’ halves Carter Gordon and England international Jack Maunder front-foot ball and lost three of their own line-outs and a further two in the second half.
Brumbies five-eighth Noah Lolesio, who spent the off-season playing with French side Toulon, out-shone Carter in their head-to-head battle, with Melbourne’s World Cup No.10 out of sorts.
In a scrappy showing from both sides, the Brumbies raced to a 17-3 halftime lead with speedster Corey Toole crossing twice.
New Rebels recruit Filipo Daugunu was given a spell in the 26th minute for a dangerous tackle on Brumbies flanker Luke Reimer, while an off-side Brumbies centre Len Ikitau was also given a yellow card after repeated team warnings.
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While neither side capitalised on their one-man advantage, the Brumbies were able to push the lead out to 25-3 in the 53rd minute through No.8 Charlie Cale.
Melbourne’s night looked to have grown still worse when star signing Taniela Tupou went down with a hand injury, but the prop managed to recover and play out the match.
Rebels skipper Rob Leota looked to have scored a season-opening try for his team but it was denied after the Television Match Official picked up that Vaiolini Ekuasi had impeded the Brumbies defence.
Cale then grabbed his second try, lurking on the wing as the ACT stretched the Rebels’ defence to seal an impressive win.
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham was pleased with the result and performance, given it was the opening round, particularly their line-out.
He said the penalty count, with his team pinged 20 times, needed improvement.
“The boys have been training well for a long time now and we had a good combination out on the field, so we were expecting to do well, but you never really know,” Larkham said
“We got a lot of things right tonight – it’s a good start.”
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments