Blues survive Rebel rampage in Melbourne

After the Rebels’ 36-0 loss to the Chiefs in Geelong last week, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Melbourne side were preparing themselves for a year of history repeating.

Sure, the regular niceties for a trial game loss were recited, not as excuses, but as matters of fact. The Rebels played four distinct line-ups against a consistent Chiefs team. There were improvements in both attack and defence. It wasn’t for points. The team, and the diehards, were preaching patience as a virtue.

However, many in the press gallery and in the stands were openly wondering how they could possibly sell a team to the expectant Melbourne public when it hadn’t made any notable progress in the area it matters most: the scoreboard.

This was especially the case when the team were preparing to face a championship contender with eleven All Blacks in their midst – Auckland’s imposing Blues side.

But, to prove the clichés are sometimes true, a week has proved a long time in football.

The Rebels approached the Blues with a probables versus possibles game plan, with the likely game-day XV taking the field for the first half to be replaced by the younger and fringe players in the second.

The fans only had to wait 90 seconds for Melbourne to finally score in 2012, with James O’Connor handed the kicking duties and slotting his first points in the navy blue.

A minute later, things got real. Danny Cipriani and Kurtley Beale were the architects of an amazing run down the left flank of AAMI Park.

Cipriani found Beale, who broke through the Blues’ defensive line, offloading to Cooper Vuna to score. With O’Connor’s successful conversion, it was 10-0 after barely three minutes.

Not long after that, Cipriani, showing his rare and unfortunately under-used talent to read open play, kicked a deft cross to Mark Gerrard, who collected perfectly to put it down in the corner.

15-0 after 10 minutes.

It’s not often a scoring play is met with a moment, however brief, of stunned silence, but not many people at the Stockade, your reporter included, knew exactly what to do at this point. The Rebels were suddenly outstanding.

Sherwin Stowers later put the Blues on the scoreboard with a thrilling chase off a Rene Ranger kick, but another penalty to the Rebels left the home side up 18-7 at half time.

With a fierce and cohesive defensive line, and amazing running through the backs, the team was unrecognisable from the week prior.

Unfortunately for the 6000-strong crowd at AAMI Park, the Rebels were again victims of their own planning, the lack of combinations in the second XV an obvious setback.

Cooper Vuna continued his outstanding form, laying some sublime tackles and causing the Blues more than one turnover, but a great running try to Tom McCartney and a brace to Isaia Toeava got the Blues home 31 to 21.

Last week, I wrote that only patience will allow us to see what the Rebels are capable of in 2012, and while nine days of keeping the faith is hardly worthy of a vindication, Melbourne showed on Saturday night that at their best they could do great things this season.

The greatest concern would be the depth of the squad, with the gap in both skill level and the understanding of the combinations becoming all too apparent. Once the training squad is finalised, this should naturally improve, but in early rounds this could present an issue.

What this week’s game did show, though, is that in Melbourne this year, history won’t repeat. Or at least, it doesn’t have to.