Rebels rout Reds to open Super season

Sea of blue - it is just darker blue, and quite shallow. The Force have added Ulese, Jack D, Hodge, Maddocks, Mafi and Niavalu to their game day 23 after Taf, Isi N, Jono, Rona, Peni, Newsome and Verity Amm, left.

Never seen Philip play at 6 and with Cotterel, Timani and Ross H-P in the side is unlikely to for the Rebels. I did notice Wessels playing Dual 6's whilst Dicky Hardwick and Colby are out of comission. That said, and given Cheka's predisposition for playing players out of position and outside their skillset, there is a real possibility of your prediction coming true, assuming Simmons, and Ned are injured.

Higgers copped a lot of flack for his card but in my opinion some of the credit goes to Phillip, he was left standing, ball in hand and if Higgers hadn't barged him, there was a hand off and back line breakout in the pipeline. He drew the penalty, with Higgers caking the execution. Rodda made life very difficult in the maul and Philip got pinged for grabbing him around the neck. It was however in retaliation for Rodda doing it first. The competition for maul dominance continued with Rodda the victor, Philip giving a very respectable performance which he more than made up for at lineout time and around the field.

Have I missed something? The humour train It left a while ago

2 Sides to the argument, Sure, in the past players were lured south and west by briefcases full of cash but In recent times the Force picked up Tahs and Reds rejects and trained them up to be serviceable players. The lack of some of that depth can be blamed on a wafer thin/luke warm/ineffective pathways programs. Both Banks and Mason spent time with QLD teams in the NRC but headed elsewhere seeking opportunities.

The Beatles were definitely game changers for music for a generation, not my generation .That was what the Who talked about. Remnants of the Zeppelin back catalogue can be heard in the foundations of many future rock acts, including AC|DC. The Beatles were one of those transient species that gave us an opposable thumb allowing us to pick up a round ball and run with it, but didn't survive the ice age long enough to hold a Gilbert and stay relevant.

Jono would have been a more familiar combo. Jake MacGregor is the man for the Job, Maddocks plays more like your rising star Tom Banks, better suited to 14/15.

These opinions tend to come from Quade or Bernard lovers. (BTW, Props for Foley's kicking from the tee last game) I thought Jack D played well in the games he played last year, it was a difficult time with the deckchairs being shuffled around injuries, making it difficult to develop combo's in a battle environment. He and Hodge took turns manning the deep with 15 on their back. As someone said earlier, getting clean ball from Ginea and hopefully Ruru behind a strong pack with English, Hodge and Meakes steaming trough beside him, this is his opportunity to seize.

This is why I would like to see him fast-tracked into the Wallabies. He isn't arrogant and creates a nurturing environment for his players to improve. From what I saw last year, Wessels works on deficiencies in players and trains them up, improving them until he can't decide between 2 good players. A great problem to have. You see interviews with guys like Matt Phillip who was inspired to strive to be as good as Ads Coleman and thought it was great to be mentored by him at the same time, even though they were rivals. This bond improves teamwork and players play for each other rather than the glory of the highlights reel. Cheika gives positions to his faves that he doesn't need to teach his complicated game plan and then has a cage match for the reaming few positions he needs to fill. Guys come out of camp with a gag order afraid to speak out (publicly anyway) in fear they won't get invited back. It is kill or be killed. an environment that creates a team of individuals that can only as good as the sum of it's parts, often, not even that.

“I think they will rebound and be better for it.” Based on what ?? It's not possible to be worse?

Do you want to start Meakes over Hodge at 12? Or push Hodge or Meakes into 10? I saw a lot of handling errors, and Jack D's rate was on par for the game. I would like to see how MacGregor goes at SR level but I fear he won't have the big game experience and needs to be weaned into it, playing the last 20 minutes of a few games.

I didn't notice that Jono was making his tackles on the wing, you might be right, but the ones I saw were near the gain line, near the ruck, up front where they really count. That gets a big tick from me. You also need to appreciate the restructure that happens when you are a man or 2 down. The expected patterns go out the window and you move into a disaster recovery strategy that has players out of normal positions.

The Rebels were quite clever leaving their books empty. If they got axed, less players to sack, if they didn't, they got the spoils of war and the pick of the force litter with the ARU and Vic government picking up some of the Tab.

I don't think there is a salary cap this year. If you can find the money, you can have all the players you want.

Thorn as coach needs to be sacked now.He is a sleeper as are the NSW bloke Cordingley and the Forces Sharpe in the boardroom.

So he missed 9 tackles and you don’t call him lazy? He jumps to take a high ball and lands outside the the touch line butchering a certain try at a crucial time in the game and that’s great play?

It’s amazing how the Roar Aus rugby naysayers hit the ground running immediately whilst it’s harder to play at your peak straight out of a pre-season. Probably easier to snipe mindlessly than to work constructively to build something. Let’s hold the vitriol until say round 6 when we’ve played a mix of SA and NZ teams and had the chance to build some cohesion. And played a few games with 15 blokes. I’m not over optimistic but I refuse to turn full on negative this early. Maybe there’s something wrong with me though

Cheika said in an interview that Thorn had discussed his plans re dismissing Quade before the June tests. A pretty fair indicator that Thorn knew he had the gig a lot earlier than October. Quade deserved better treatment than that and to be fair Stiles deserved more than one season to mould the team. The Reds are all talk about culture, loyalty and commitment. Maybe they should try walking the walk.

I'm pretty sure character includes respect for the law and courts, so witch hunting someone out for something they are not guilty of is of pretty poor character.

Which is an issue for every team of course. But when you consider it impacted 8 of their starting players, then another 2 were late because they came from Japan, and another 2 were in rehab most of the pre season, there certainly was a bit of disruption.