Melbourne have failed to stop the New Zealand rout of Australian sides, crashing to the Blues in their opening round Super Rugby Trans-Tasman clash.
Despite a new coach at the helm, with assistant Kevin Foote stepping up after Dave Wessels’ departure, it was more of the same from the Rebels, who missed the Super Rugby AU playoffs after finishing fourth.
Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete’s try-scoring drought continued with Melbourne failing to get across the line at AAMI Park as the Blues posted a thumping 50-3 victory.
Blues No.8 Hoskins Sotutu scored two early second-half tries to effectively put the game out of the Rebels’ reach by the 56th minute.
The match then opened up, with the Blues running rampant to finish with six tries, with replacement back Akira Ioane also finishing with a double
Loosehead prop Karl Tu’inukuafe terrorised his opposite Cabous Eloff and the Rebels pack in the opening stanza, earning four scrum penalties.
Dominating possession and territory, the visitors also forced errors in the Melbourne attack through their lightning line-speed.
Each side were unlucky not to score through the first half with an early effort by Bryce Heem called back for a Rieko Ioane knock-on.
Melbourne then missed a deserved penalty try when hooker Jordan Uelese’s would-be score was illegally thwarted by Adrian Choat, who was yellow-carded.
The Blues took their chances and skipper Tom Robinson was ready and waiting for a long floating pass from five-eighth Otere Black to score right on halftime for a 17-3 lead.
Any hopes of a home side fightback was snuffed out by Sototu’s early second-half efforts as the Blues iced an impressive display across the park.
Rugbnutter
Guest
What is with all the WA angst against the east coast as it is nzru who wants to reduce oz footprint to serve the interests of the nzru TT competition
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Totally agree, Thrush has been huge for you this year, Miotti is going really well, Kahui brings a good level head to the backline. Think anyone of these guys could get a call up soon. Obviously taking the mickey before you arc up. No one begrudges what the Force have done, and I think most people feel they were hard done by when the were removed. The travel is a factor, but not for every away game, unless they are home/away/home/away/home. Also, considering they move ahead in time by travelling East - wouldn’t that be easier? IE the body would feel like it was an afternoon game rather than a midnight one like the teams travelling West?
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Took me a moment to realise he was talking about Big Karl lol
Ex force fan
Guest
If it was only one writer, last week it was another that stated the incorrect that the Force doesn’t have a salary cap to adhere to. Another pick a Wallaby side with no Force players even in the wider group, are they even watching the Force play? It is this mentality or believe that no rugby is played West of Broken Hill that wis the problem. Eastern State Rugby journalist need to pick up their game and supporters will continue to point out their ignorance until they do something about it.
moaman
Roar Guru
Heard one guy nail Tu'inukuafe's name and another guy absolutely butcher it! :stoked:
Paulo
Roar Rookie
You missed the point. There is none. There is however a professional Rugby Union side playing out of Melbourne. Hence why the comparison doesn’t work. Although, you could fairly substitute ‘NZ’ for ‘anywhere outside of Australia’ when pointing out who doesn’t care about AFL.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
This length tournament probably suits the Blues, they seem to go well for a half dozen games then, I don’t know, get bored? Lose concentration? Just stop caring? This sprint to the finish should avoid that, hopefully for the long suffering fans.
Ben
Guest
What? Whos the professional AFL side playing out of NZ?
J Jones
Roar Rookie
There is a professional AFL side playing out of NZ or you comparison is childish?
Somer
Guest
A mistake or oversight by one individual editor\writer which was quickly fixed hardly constitutes a conspiracy theory against WA rugby. Jacko's right, seeking to be offended over such an innocuous matter has faux victim mentality written all over it.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The female commentators on Stan are better than the men with this. They actually try to get well across the details they should know. Some of the older ex players just coast by on rep. I watched Roz Kelly subtlety almost bully Horan into pronouncing it correct. Horan pronounced it incorrectly and Roz seemed to go out of her way to use his name repeatedly to make Horan look silly for saying it incorrectly.
moaman
Roar Guru
I for one am pleased that the aussie commentators are finally making an effort. It has been long overdue. Good on them I reckon. :thumbup:
Paul D
Roar Rookie
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Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Hasn’t changed it. That’s what it’s always been. People just got it wrong in the past and he has corrected them.
Ex force fan
Guest
Why offend in the first place.... direct your criticism to the offender not the offended. It is this ignorance that led to the axing of WA from Rugby Australia only 4 years ago.
Ex force fan
Guest
We had the worst travelling schedule and the match schedule with least turn arounds between games for years..,,interesting how Eastern Staters cannot give the Force credit for what we achieved after they betrayed us only just 4 years ago. We almost started from scratch again and is already competitive. The Force is doing well and is building to something better - we may even get some of our players in the Wallabies despite this mindset
Whats with his name change now after 10 years of it being one way then now its a pronunciation change? To'omua???? the commentators lasted about 50 mins before fading back into habits...
Sheikh I have no doubt that the Force are at a disadvantage over a season of travelling but they went into this game after being home for at least 2 weeks with a week off to get all their aches and pains right yet the Chiefs played an away final last week then did a ful days travel just to get to Perth and then had a midnight NZ time kickoff so I personally feel that for this game the Chiefs overcame a very difficult schedule to notch a win....
The ability of some WA fans to feel insulted is world class. Of all the games played at the time of the article it HAD IN FACT been a complete clean sweep by NZ sides. Why spend your life looking to be offended?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Rebels need to go back to their boring game. They made good meters using their forward runners, just when they tried to go wide they got picked off. Part was Powell’s sideways steps giving the D time to advance. Part was Ili, Pincus and Lomani weren’t as threatening as their Blues opposites so shouldn’t have tried to play it. Plus they need to sort out the scrum. Blues got opportunities all day off scrum penalties. Fix the scrum and play to their strengths and they can actually be a more difficult team to play.