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Rene Ranger returns as Blues thump Rebels in preseason trial

4th February, 2016
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The Rebels take on the Canes in Friday night Super Rugby action. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
4th February, 2016
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The Blues have roundly beaten the Melbourne Rebels 59-7 in a trial match at Bell Park in Auckland on Thursday.

The Blues capitalised on an inexperienced Rebels line-up with four tries in the final 20 minutes putting the game beyond doubt in front of a bumper crowed at the Pakuranga Rugby Club.

“I think the scoreline was pretty indicative of the way Auckland played tonight,” Rebels Head Coach Tony McGahan said post-match.

“I thought they were excellent all the way through. I was really impressed with the power and the pace they played with tonight and you saw that with a couple of class moments from (Rene) Ranger in the backline.”

Two converted tries from Jack Ram and Nick Mayhew put the hosts ahead after the half-hour before Mitch Inman responded for the Rebels with a try under the posts on the stroke of half-time.

Costly errors and turnovers stifled any momentum in attack for the Rebels as the Blues scored seven unanswered tries in the second half against the visiting side featuring a host of extended playing squad members and local club players.

“It was a bit of a challenge for us to get some numbers this week,” McGahan said. “We had two of three guys from club rugby who only had one training session.

“I thought the first half we were in there but we had too many individual mistakes which took a bit of momentum away from us.

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“That result certainly won’t hurt us, we’ll worry about the process, but we were certainly left catching up in the last 15 minutes.

“That’s what pre-season is about and we’ve got a lot of players coming back in next week and should have a full squad back together for the trial match against Samoa in two weeks.”

The Melbourne Rebels return home on Friday ahead of the final trial match against Samoa at AAMI Park on Thursday 18 February.

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