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Melbourne Rebels player Luke Jones at the launch of the franchise in Melbourne (AAP Image/Julian Smith).
On the way to the Melbourne Rebels impressive ‘Weary’ Dunlop Lunch, I popped into a newsagent to buy some papers. A man of a certain age was buying two tickets for the Rebels – Waratahs match. It turned out that he was a New Zealander who I’d played cricket against years ago in Wellington.
He’d been a CEO of a major bank in Melbourne and was relishing the chance of watching some big time rugby on a regular basis.
Later on at Crown Casino, the impressive venue for a superlative lunch (the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Mike Brady with a new rugby song and the eloquent Alan Jones) I asked an impeccably dressed Maori for directions to the banquet hall.
‘Follow me,’ he said. And he led me to a dining area with 110 tables of ten which was already crowded with suits (at $200 a place) from the highest echelons of Melbourne business.
People have tended to write off the Rebels’ chances as a successful franchise on the grounds that Melbourne is an AFL town. This rabid loyalty to the Australian form of football is true. But it is also true that there is a very big rugby community in Melbourne, most of them connected in some way with New Zealand.
It is sometimes overlooked that per head of population New Zealand has the biggest representation of any country. There are four million people living in New Zealand. And there are an astonishing one million New Zealanders living out of New Zealanders. Many tens of thousands of these exiles are living in Melbourne. They will form the heart and soul, I believe, of the support for the Rebels.
One other point to note about the ‘Weary’ Dunlop Rugby Lunch was just how slick it was. Alan Jones, in a masterly oration about the special qualities of the rugby brotherhood, remarked that this was the best lunch of its kind he had ever attended. Everything worked well. The meal was splendid. The speeches excellent. Teddy Tahu Rhodes brought down the house singing the Rebels song from ‘Les Miserables.’
And this was follow by Mike Brady singing his newly-composed rugby anthem, ‘The love of the game,’ which is certain to become a rugby anthem.
If this off-the-field slickness is carried across to the playing field, then the Rebels will be the ‘competitive’ side they say they are aiming at being.
A bookmaker has already paid out on the team finishing last. This is insulting, in my view. Rod Macqueen has put together a tough pack with some big and experienced backs. He has already created one successful Super Rugby franchise from nothing. I reckon the money should be on him to repeat the trick.
My guess, too, is that the way he will achieve this initially is by playing a solid, no-frills (but plenty of thrills) game with field position being a dominant tactical factor. This restricted game makes sense for a new side.
There is a hint of this defensively-minded approach in the choice of number 10 for the opening match tonight against the NSW Waratahs for the Weary Dunlop Shield. James Hilgendorf, a solid, no-nonsense pivot is preferred to the exciting and erratic Danny Cipriani.
And there was an article in last week’s Sun Herald by Adam Freier, who is still recovering from injuries, to the effect that rugbywriters (and I feel that this might be directed at me) should not constantly call for running rugby as the best, only and most effective way to play the game.
I had a quick chat before going into the lunch with Robbie Deans and asked him if he thought Rod Macqueen had things up his sleeve, some new tricks for his team to show off. Deans said he’d watched the Rebels practicing and he was impressed with some of the plays they were perfecting.
All will be revealed tonight.
I’m not expecting the Rebels to defeat a strong Waratahs side which I’m picking to win the Australian conference. I am hoping, though, that the team is competitive and that it picks up some wins as the tournament progresses.
So let’s all hear it for the Rebels song: ‘Do You Hear The People Sing.’
‘Will you join in our crusade?/Who will be strong and stand with me?/… There is a life about to start/When tomorrow comes!’