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Rebels and Highlanders cruise to big Super Rugby wins

By Ben Spratt

The Rebels stretched their lead at the top of the Australian Conference after a blistering second-half spell against the Brumbies, while there was also a big Super Rugby win for the Highlanders.

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Having taken two wins and two bonus points from their first two matches of the season, Reece Hodge inspired the Rebels to make it three from three for the first time in club history with a 33-10 victory on Friday.

Chance Peni went over in the corner to hand the visitors an early lead at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, but two tries in quick succession later in the first half – from Amanaki Mafi and Hodge – turned the game in the Rebels’ favour.

Although Henry Speight brought the Brumbies back into contention following the restart, another flurry of tries took the home side out of sight.

Hodge crossed for his second of the night and maintained a perfe

ct conversion record as Jack Maddocks quickly added another on the counter, the comfortable 28-10 scoreline giving the Rebels the opportunity to chase the bonus once more.

That duly arrived when the Brumbies failed to halt another break and Michael Ruru scored a third try in seven minutes to cap the scoring.

The Highlanders emerged from a hectic start to their match with the Stormers to earn a comprehensive 33-15 win as Aaron Smith scored twice.

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Four tries in the opening 20 minutes had the sides tied at 12-12, Smith drawing the hosts level after Chris van Zyl and SP Marais had cancelled out Liam Squire’s opener.

Marais’ 31st-minute penalty then restored the Stormers’ lead, but the New Zealanders responded swiftly with a try for Waisake Naholo and the result was never in doubt from that point onwards.

Aaron Smith was a key performer for the Highlanders in the win over the Stormers.

Luke Whitelock stretched the Highlanders’ advantage, before Smith’s second try with just two minutes remaining secured the bonus bonus that takes his side to within a point of the conference-leading Crusaders.

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Outscoring the visitors by five tries to two, the Highlanders held the Stormers scoreless for 50 minutes – including the entire second half – to record a 33-15 win.

The result also extended the Stormers’ losing streak on New Zealand soil to 10 matches.

The Stormers now have only one win from four, despite dominating territory, leaving captain Siya Kolisi frustrated at his side’s error rate on attack.

“It’s the same story every time,” Kolisi said in his post-match reaction, adding: “We didn’t hold onto the ball, we didn’t come away with points when we got to the 22 and they did.

ROUND 4 HIGHLIGHTS: Highlanders v Stormers

HIGHLIGHTS | Waisake Naholo unleasehed his whole bag of tricks as the Pulse Energy Highlanders powered to a bonus-point win over the Stormers in Dunedin.MATCH REPORT: http://bit.ly/2G7SptQ#HIGvSTO

Posted by Investec Super Rugby on Friday, 9 March 2018

“We can’t keep making the same mistakes every week.”

Highlanders captain Ben Smith was pleased his players handled the physical challenge meted out by the Stormers, who face the Blues at home next week.

“They’re big men, we had to match that and we did,” he said.

“We didn’t help ourselves at times [with handling errors] but that’s an easy fix.”

 

 

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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