Melbourne are Rising to the top

The first game of Round 4 showcased a Super Rugby-laden Melbourne Rising team, who brutally demolished Brisbane City in what was simply a try-scoring spree.

They hosted the Perth Spirit, who had rested several of their Force players – not just those who were promoted into the Wallaby team – having suffered two narrow losses to sit fifth on the table.

Leading into the game, I couldn’t help but think the Rising would continue to make mincemeat of any opposition given 13 of their starting XV are signed with the Rebels.

They’d scored 25 tries in three games, and considering they were coming off the back of a 79-18 win against a team who has already beaten Perth, I’d have been happy for them to play a few games of Rugby ’08 as preparation for this match.

However, the men from the west weren’t go down without a fight.

My eyes were on Luke Jones, Cadeyrn Neville and Sean McMahon, who are great prospects for the future, as well as fellow Rebels Nick Stirzaker and Jack Debreczeni, who have already had exposure to Super Rugby and are making it known with their dominance in this competition. I think Melbourne have finally found their preferred 9-10 pair and accordingly all eyes will be on the Rebels next year to see just how much the NRC has improved their playing style.

The first half of the encounter was everything I had hoped for. After a slow start, both teams came out with great attacking intent and fantastic goal-line defence. The Spirit were first on the board through rampaging 8 Rovira, who made the most of a disorganised Rising forward pack following a scrum infringement right in front of the posts.

The Rising didn’t waste much time before hitting back with their own bulldozing scrum-anchor, with Lopeti Timani barreling over for a fantastic score to even up the match.

Despite a lot of loose passes, both backlines showed great intent, and the running rugby of the Rising backline was as agile and blistering as it’s been this entire competition.

With better handling from Stirzaker and more pace from McMahon, Melbourne would’ve been up by another two tries, but 18-8 ended as the half-time score and was notably the first time Perth have been down after 40 minutes.

After the hooter, unforced errors proved dangerous. A botched Melbourne lineout resulted in a box-kick from the Spirit, which bounced fortuitously for speedster Brad Lacey to sprint down for an easy try, narrowing the score to 18-16. Both teams made basic handling errors and gave away easy ball with a lot of ball-to-ground action. 15 minutes into the second half, Timani scored his second try of the night after the Rising scrum pushes over the line from five metres out.

I can’t wait to see this man utilised in Super Rugby.

Likewise, his backrow counterparts dominated the hit ups with damaging runs by Jones out wide and McMahon in the middle. Neville followed suit and ran right over the tryline!

In the 64th minute, Debreczeni received a bullet from a midfield scrum and grubbered through for an easy collection and swift offload to Telusa Veainu who sprinted through and steped inside the Spirit defence to score an unbelievable try.

Perth tried to claw their way back, but the goal-line defence of Melbourne proved too much and they couldn’t turn pressure into points. Burgess showed his class off the bench and his experience at scrum time showed when he plucked the ball from the side and dove over for a five pointer.

Zack Holmes has the last say of the match with a try right before full-time, but it was merely a consolation as the Rising continued their dominance with an impressive 44-24 win.

So what did we learn from this gruelling encounter? Both 10s played well and provided great tactical kicking to set up try scoring opportunities for their respective teams. Goal-line defence was integral to both teams and the Rising in particular did well not to let in more tries from a determined Spirit forward pack. We also know not to kick to the Rising, as they can return monster kicks and have the most dangerous runners in the competition.

Who stood out? The entire Rising pack! They dominated the scrum, stole lineouts and disrupted rucks the entire night. Neville, Jones, McMahon and Timani were great in hit-ups and Debreczeni lead well and kicked effectively.

Tom English and Veainu also showed a lot of class and will be ones to keep an eye out for in the future, especially with the lack of depth in Australian wingers at the moment. For the Spirit, their forwards kept them in the match, with Brynard Stander the standout.

He was everywhere in attack and defence and showed a lot of promise in a young forward pack. With a lot of young players in the Perth team, there weren’t a lot of superstars, but everyone played well enough to contest the best team in the competition.

How can they improve? Nic Stirzaker is improving game by game, his election as captain has definitely helped and with a bit more game time he will be a massive threat and menace on the field.

Melbourne need only nail their handling and they will be unstoppable. Several tries were squandered by loose ball and offloads that didn’t quite stick. Additionally, if they convert all of their tries, the scores will further highlight their dominance.

Perth played valiantly, but poor passing was a massive problem for them. As a young team you can excuse some mistakes, but they conceded far too many turnovers and gave away an endless supply of penalties, which hindered their chances dramatically. With quicker ball they will become a real threat, as they built up phases, but couldn’t keep momentum for long enough to get over the line.

As Round 4 commences, I am becoming more and more excited about what the NRC has to offer. My early forecast is for Melbourne to take out the comp with their plethora of Rebels players, all I know for certain is that I won’t ever get bored watching their attacking style of rugby.

Congratulations to the Rising, good effort to the Spirit, and go the mighty Brisbane City!