On a perfect night for rugby in Melbourne, the Rebels have stunned the heavily favoured Brumbies 19-17 in an upset that, for many, will be seen as having implications on the field as well as off.
It has been a tumultuous week off the field for the Rebels, but owner Andrew Cox laid a stake in the ground on Friday night with a fierce attack on the ARU and its processes, and the players backed him up on the field tonight.
To be fair, they were aided by an out of sorts Brumbies, who never approached the giddy heights of last week’s win against the Reds, but despite their dithering, and failing to take advantage of three Rebels’ yellow cards, tonight was all about the home side.
The scoring was opened by an early Reece Hodge penalty, before Sefa Naivalu brushed through some soft Brumbies defence for a nice running try, in the 14th minute.
Soon after, the Rebels were reduced to 13, but the Brumbies didn’t take maximum advantage, scoring only once, to winger Henry Speight.
They did add a pushover try to Jarrad Butler in the 33rd min, and despite a close shave when Naivalu was just pushed out by Tom Banks in the 40th min, took a narrow lead into half-time.
The second half degenerated into an arm-wrestle, with both sides struggling throughout at lineout, and referee Jackson, whistling a number of penalty goals.
The Brumbies edged ahead by 17-13 with a smartly taken try to Speight, off a solid scrum and sharp dart by halfback Joe Powell, but the Rebels kept chipping away and the huge boot of Hodge kept them in touch.
It needed something special from the Rebels to break the mould, and it came with two minutes to go, when their scrum, which had been struggling for much of the night, pushed the Brumbies pack off their own ball, to earn a penalty.
Hodge nailed the kick from 35m and the Rebels then finished the game on attack, courtesy of a final penalty attempt.
Post match Brumbies coach Steve Larkham was clearly disappointed with his side’s execution, and pointed to an unsatisfactory week of training as something he will have to address.
Flanker Chris Alcock was a dynamo, and Rory Arnold ran strongly while he was on, but overall the side lacked the fluidity of last week, and paid the price for lacking some dash, particularly when they had numerical advantage. Wallabies centre Tevita Kuridrani was one to have a very quiet night.
Meanwhile, in the other camp, Rebels coach Tony McGahan was understandably delighted with the win, saying that we saw “the heart of the club out there tonight”.
Flanker Colby Fainga’a had another strong match, and captain Nick Stirzaker was sharp and tidy, particularly in light of dealing with some untidy ball. Like their opponent, the Rebels backline never quite got going as smoothly as they would have liked, although fullback Reece Hodge was a dominant figure in the match, with some booming punts, and nailing the kicks for goal that mattered.
The crowd was announced as a disappointing 7,574, although it felt like many more than that – particularly when the Rebels hit the lead in the 79th minute, and held on from there, to great scenes of jubilation.
As a spectacle, this match wasn’t exactly a shot in the arm for Australian rugby, but it was tense and rugged all the way, and the result will obviously be a huge boost for the Rebels as they now head to South Africa.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
If producing junior talent doesn't make you a rugby town than what does? Rugby in Sydney is dwarfed by NRL but it produces the most talent (with QLD).
Scott
Guest
TWAS it is disingenuous to link if Melbourne will ever be a rugby town with the production of schoolboy and U20 reps to Aus teams because one does not necessarily follow the other in the Melbourne market!
Train Without A Station
Guest
But most importantly if Melbourne will never be a rugby town, what about the fact that they now continually produce more schoolboy and U20 reps to Aus teams than ACT and WA whilst continually outperforming them at both levels? That's quite a blight on these "rugby towns", isn't it?
Train Without A Station
Guest
Well no. Because everybody would have lower crowds. Like the Reds did...
Cynical Play
Guest
I love you tying yourself up in knots trying to make irrelevant facts fit your vague point which, all too often, flip flops around like a beached mullet. Do go on ... ... you were saying... ah, yes .. Melbourne is as much the grand future of Oz rugby as anywhere. But not when everyone is away for the weekend. Or some similar gibberish...
Train Without A Station
Guest
I'm not touchy. I'm pointing out facts. In 2013 the Waratahs averaged something like 12,000 fans per game. That was a year they had a 50% win record. Better than the Rebels ever have (last year 7-8 was their best). So in a similar size city, with a huge head start on professional Rugby and a supposedly rugby heartland, they managed to average near 3000 more fans than the Rebels average across a season. This is a problem for all cities, and you're clueless if you think Melbourne cannot be viable because of completion, but others can. No city (except maybe Canberra) will ever be a "rugby city". Doesn't mean they can't be viable and successful locations for professional teams. But hey do go on. I know you love talking about things which you really know nothing about.
Train Without A Station
Guest
Pirates some of that is luck (Higginbotham - injuries), some not enough time to actually make it (PAE - signed in france before he was a starter) and some weren't necessarily playing the role that was needed for the national team (Pyle). Jones was hard done by though. But he also stated 2 years before he wasn't interested in leaving - then he got married, had a kid and his wife's sister and brother in law (Mark Chisholm) were living in France at the time so may have come into consideration. That said it Mumm is on a top up and Jones was let go, that is absolutely pathetic selection choices.
Rebellion
Guest
Kirky, We know the kiwis are good at two things. 1. Rugby 2. I'll give you a hint...what is Willie Ripia notorious for??? Well done
Rebellion
Guest
I agree CUW Who wants to be the Force??? I've noticed a few people keep commenting that one win shouldn't influence the ARU's decision...how about over 11 seasons of deplorable results ???? I wish I didn't have to put my two cents in so often it's like Force fans are oblivious to their teams record in Super rugby.
Cynical Play
Guest
Touchy. Rebels. Dead Horse. Flogged. On your logic... sorry, what logic?!... I know TWAS let's play rugby in Tassie. It's not rugby territory but a few mugs might turn up if there's no league on. You're right again. Melbourne is the future.
Rebellion
Guest
And 2011 which was the Rebels' first year - a tough ask for a new team to recruit quality players with test ambitions in a RWC year
Train Without A Station
Guest
And the Reds got their lowest crowd in years. It's like Easter Saturday is a horrible time for a home game. Lucky your Tahs didn't play. That way you can get on your high horse.
Rebellion
Guest
This is the Western Force stats - a team who have been around twice as long as the Rebels. How pathetic is 'tis record: 2011 - 12th of 15 teams 2012 - 14th of 15 teams 2013 - 13th of 15 teams 2014 - 8th of 15 teams 2015 - LAST of 15 teams 2016 - 13th of 18 teams They were last in the Australian conference every year bar 2014 which was an aberration. It's like watching Bernard Tomic when he's having a bad day
Rebellion
Guest
Concerned Supporter How many of these sides mentioned had played in finals series or grand finals? The Western Force have never even finished in the top half of the table. They must be regulars at the Freo pub
PiratesRugby
Guest
The Rebels have never been on a level playing field. Good performance is not rewarded with national selection. Players get the message and leave for more lucrative work overseas. For example Jones, Pyle, Higginbotham and Alo-Emile. The Rebels players don't get the lucrative ARU top ups like many of the the Tah players do. So, off they go. Add to that, we've had McMahon, Smith and Timani out injured for most of the year and you can see why we struggle. It also doesn't help to have constant speculation about your existence. That's been going on since our first year.
Train Without A Station
Guest
But again, not turning up isn't necessarily lack of resolve. Rugby isn't the only thing in people's lives. Every single member that I know was out of down. Some were the adult kids away with their families, others were the parents taking their families away, some just took the opportunity to get away for the 4 day weekend. The fact that accomodation all around the regions within 4 hours were heavily booked shows how popular this is in Melbourne.
Train Without A Station
Guest
No. But since they don't go head to head is that relevant? Your criticising low crowds (without considering the factors I mentioned). I'm just pointing out that in a major city, your NPC with 40 years of history struggles to draw crowds to finals. Maybe, just maybe, everybody is having trouble drawing crowds.
Train Without A Station
Guest
I'm not saying they should have made finals. I'm pointing out they were progressing towards finals contention.
taylorman
Guest
'Two more wins' in this comp is a lot bigger ask than it looks. That would have made the world of difference for many sides who were wanting a mere bonus point here or there. A whole ten points would shift a side from laughable to conference topping. Other than their wins Rebels were thrashed in all other games bar the Blues and Brumbies, so yes, they could have got two more but few teams win all their close matches, especially when they have many.
Pinetree
Guest
At the risk of double posting, I will try again with an edit to avoid moderation. If this works, then it would seem unfair that you would allow a word for one, but not another. Rhys – So having a opinion is wh!nging now, I guess that makes you a wh!nger too. Can I suggest that the conference system has negative effects for Australian rugby as well? At the risk of sounding like a wh!nger I will. When you make a path easier for one and harder for the other, what do you think the end results would be? It appears that a conference goes from strength to strength with a hard path, and the quality of rugby drops overall in the weak conference. Tman made a cracking observation years ago that the AB were going to get stronger and the Wallabies were going to suffer from having a stronger/weaker path in SR. This has proved correct, so how does the quality of rugby improve in Aus as this is surely a key factor in getting people to watch the games. Did the Brumbies home final against the Highlanders really do anything to improve the rugby in Aus last year, as it seemed that most had very little interest as they were reasonable sure that the Brumbies would lose. Does this create better revenue based on one home quarter, or does Aus teams doing better overall create more revenue? The numbers dropping off in SR seems to me to align with the introduction of S15 in 2011, and has rapidly got worse over the 6-7 years. How does this help Aus? The effect of the leg up to Aus became obvious when it was taken away in 2016, and the causation of this ended with very poor showings from Aus teams. The Wallabies have not benefited at all from the conference system, but the All Blacks…… If you lower the bar for competition in SR for a country, that moves on to the national team and effects the integrity of the competition in SR. Nobody is a winner, except for the All Blacks of course.