The injury crisis is easing slightly for the Melbourne Rebels, but it is a desperate attitude that coach Rod Macqueen most wants to return in the Super Rugby clash with the Hurricanes.
Macqueen said flanker Michael Lipman would be back from an ankle injury at AAMI Park on Friday night. And significantly for a team buckling under the weight of missing players, Macqueen doesn’t expect to lose anyone else as a result of last weekend’s horror 53-3 Super Rugby defeat at the hands of the Queensland Reds.
Despite post-match concerns over Lachlan Mitchell (hand) and Julian Huxley (hip), both were expected to be available.
Macqueen said the club was still at a point where they were looking at bringing in replacement players.
“We’re thinking about that and we’re right on the edge at the moment, that is a concern for us,” he said.
“For instance, if Huxley was out this week I think we’d be out there looking now.”
The Rebels are still without Mark Gerrard, Hoani Macdonald, James Hilgendorf, Sam Cordingley, Kevin O’Neill and Adam Freier.
But Macqueen said that was no excuse for the performance against the Reds.
“We put a lot of work into our preparation, obviously we’ve got professionals preparing the players and we try to peak them at the right time,” he said.
“For whatever reason it just didn’t work this week and they weren’t up for the game and it showed.”
He said the sub-par attitude which showed through most at the breakdown, was in stark contrast to the previous round when they lost narrowly to the Sharks.
“The week before we were a lot more urgent, we had numbers there at the breakdown and were securing the ball time and time again,” Macqueen said.
“Against Queensland they were beating us to the breakdown consistently.”
Macqueen said Rebels academy player Chris Slade, who played some pre-season trials, could be a replacement option if there were any more injuries to Melbourne’s backs.
Slade first gained the club’s attention with a standout performance for premiers Melbourne Unicorns in last year’s Victorian Rugby Union first grade grand final.
© AAP 2012Recommend this story.
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The Crowd Says (5) | Page 1 of Comments
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March 23rd 2011 @ 10:02am
The Way It Is said | March 23rd 2011 @ 10:02am | Report comment
They selected an ageing team roster and now they are paying the price. How Frier was selected is beyond me as surely if he doesn’t play games he shouldn’t receive contract money. I like the Rebels a lot but if it wasn’t for a suss penalty they wouldn’t have had a win yet and the way they played last week they will be lucky to win again. Some of that defence was terrible.
March 23rd 2011 @ 4:17pm
MyLeftFoot said | March 23rd 2011 @ 4:17pm | Report comment
Latest news is that Huxley is out with a groin injury.
Six players currently unavailable for the Rebels.
Hard enough for anyone to cover that, let alone a new club, unfortunately, a few big margins remain pending.
March 23rd 2011 @ 4:28pm
Nagti Pakeha said | March 23rd 2011 @ 4:28pm | Report comment
The Way it is, they’ll lean and bounce back from that game like they did against the Tahs. I was at the sharks game and the rebels could of won that one, In fact the Rebels should have beat the Brumbies by more points if it wasn’t for a forward pass. They doing alright for a first year team , whats the Brumbies or Waratahs excuse?
March 23rd 2011 @ 4:40pm
MyLeftFoot said | March 23rd 2011 @ 4:40pm | Report comment
I think we know what the Brumbies’ excuse is – it’s called getting ahead of yourself!
March 23rd 2011 @ 5:07pm
MyLeftFoot said | March 23rd 2011 @ 5:07pm | Report comment
This is the HS article on Rebel injury woes:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/rugby-union/injury-hit-rebels-make-switches/story-e6frfgkf-1226026875224?from=public_rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter