Melbourne say their Super Rugby season is far from a lost cause despite falling to their fifth successive loss and losing star halfback Will Genia to serious injury.
Genia limped off late in the first half of their 55-10 loss to the ladder-leading Crusaders, who delivered a masterclass in both attack and defence at AAMI Park on Friday night.
The Test halfback’s Super Rugby season could be over with the early diagnosis a grade two or three medial ligament tear, with scans booked in for Saturday.
Genia could be sidelined for at least eight weeks, effectively ending his Rebels season.
Coach Dave Wessels was disappointed his side held the 2017 champions to 13-10 at halftime only to concede 42 unanswered points in the second half.
“It was a frustrating game because I really felt in the first half we were in the contest,” Wessels said.
“The challenge for us is to regroup … as sad as we’re feeling we’ve got to figure out what happened there.
“There’s a lot of technical things that we missed and we’ve got to fix those and try to beat the Brumbies and if we can do that we put ourselves in a position to do something special.”
Wessels said his players needed to find a way to better manage the pressure imposed by top sides like the Crusaders and Hurricanes.
Skipper Adam Coleman said he felt that despite the run of losses, his team, who trailed the ladder-leading Waratahs by three points heading into the round, could turn their season around.
“I’ve got full confidence in this team and I know something special is going to happen,” Coleman said.
“We have to turn this performance around and we have the right people in the boat at the moment to do that.”
Against the Brumbies in Canberra next Saturday they are likely to have Wallabies fullback Dane Haylett-Petty back from concussion.
The Rebels have missed his composure and smarts in the back line during his second stint out after a head knock.
DaveR
Guest
Very disappointing: Rebels have the worst missed tackle stats in the SR comp, but today (Monday) Wessels is talking about getting special support in Melbourne because of AFL. How about fix the woeful tackling, and more wins will come, and then more supporters will come? In fact, how about just focussing on the missed tackling as the No1 problem in the club?
piru
Roar Rookie
There's something in the water in Melbourne that kills rugby abilities - look at these blokes who went from hard running nutcases in Perth to jogging prima donnas in Vic. What's happened to Coleman and Meakes? DHP is concussed every other week, even Wessels seems to have lost the ability to coach like he did last year. Like I said, something in the water, I'd be investigating the AFL if I were Vic Rugby
piru
Roar Rookie
The good thing about two teams (NSW & QLD) is you would have two winning teams and not 4 losers who are killing the game. Given the Aussie teams seem only capable of beating other Aussie teams, you'd think more would be better - hard to pad the stats with only one other side you can beat
Phil
Guest
Totally agree about the halves,PeterK.When Genia went off it looked to me like they threw a swicth and turned off the Rebels.I know it's unfair to lump all the blame on Ruru,but it looked like a game changer to me.Debraczeni also plays much better with Genia there,but looks very sub standard when he is not.
The Slow Eater
Guest
We should try Maddocks at 10. Hodges 12 and Tom English at 13. Either that or bring in QC at 10. Debreczini has had plenty of chances over the years and has been found wanting.
Ex force fan
Guest
Wessels set himself up, the expectations to forge two separate teams plus a couple of extras into a new team, win the Aus conference and play in the finals were never realistic.
Bakkies
Guest
Cameron do you mean the Rabble get 10 million and the rest get 5 million each with travel whacked in?
Bakkies
Guest
Well the minutes stated that the morons voted on the team to go in October 2016 the rest is just de Clyne and Búmchin led horse manure. No wonder de Clyne got so defensive when grilled over those minutes. He knew he was busted for being a sloppy dunce.
Bakkies
Guest
Will keep on continuing while the likes of de Clyne and Davis get reelected to chair boards.
Ex force fan
Guest
What convoluted logic TWAS. Travel (and accommodation) costs of Superugby is at least an order of magnitudes greater than WRS. Fact. No matter how you cut it, total cost, per team or per game.
Ex force fan
Guest
It was obvious that the Force is the better choice to retain. The ARU's pet project is to get a team in Melbourne despite the lack of interest. The damage this dumb decision created to WA Rugby was one of the factors that the ARU was never prepared to discuss. Clyne and all thr board members that was part of this debacle needs to go.
Ex force fan
Guest
Unless you think they made the decision in October 2016 and then committed to a farce of a selection process in 2017 to make,the selection "official". Their problem is that the facts change and they were unable to change their decision. The latter is just plain incompetence.
adastra32
Guest
A lot of observers 'up here' were somewhat bemused at the hopes placed on Meakes by some commentators when he returned to Oz. About the best you could say about his time playing for Gloucester was that he was 'undistinguished'.
Too old
Guest
Thorn should be sacked. He has run down Queensland rugby.
Ex force fan
Guest
TWAS absolute rubbish. Not even the ARU could articulate why they picked the Rebels above the Force. They spoke about a mythical spreadsheet but could not explain what the spreadsheet said. It was a trust us, we know better attitude and it is now EXTREMELY clear that they got it wrong. Even you are now looking back and realise they (you) got it wrong 9 months ago! The way it was done was shameful. They got it wrong and WA Rugby paid significantly for their mistake! The pain to axe the Force was never ever worth the small gain but they were to arrogant to listen or to negotiate with Twiggy. A merger would have been a far better compromise for both sides.
Ex force fan
Guest
He didn't make excuses last year. A coach that makes excuses for his players is digging a grave for himself.
Ex force fan
Guest
Bluffboy, if the Force was still there they would continue their trajectory from last year. It would be the second year is a row, combinations would be in place and they would not had to restart like the Rebels did. They had a good culture, the backing of WA rugby public and the advantage of a stronger club competition and an increased Future Force feeding group. I am confident that even with less star players in their side as a team the Force would had a very good opportunity to make the finals this year. However winning the comp was still a year or two off.
RugbyTragic
Guest
Gees Rebels may not think their season is far from over but for a lot of fans it might be as to have had to sit through such appalling performances for the last 6 weeks from a team laden with wallabies, I think many have had enough.
Ex force fan
Guest
Wrong, the only good thing is that you will lose less superugby games. As less players are exposed to top level rugby you will however lose more tests against Tier 2 nations putting Australia back to where it was in the 1960s and 1970.
Fionn
Guest
Played well against the Reds, Sunwolves, Brumbies and, from memory, the Sharks. You could just as easily look at the rest of the Aussie players and ask who has played well against strong teams. Did any Waratahs look good against the Jaguares or the Lions? Hodge hasn't the distribution for 10. If his distribution is limited in the centres then no way at 10. Shift Maddocks to 10 if anything.