Melbourne’s quest for Super Rugby Pacific redemption has fallen just short, with the Rebels going down to the Chiefs 33-30 in a Sunday afternoon thriller.
Prop Ollie Norris brushed off tackles and scored for the Chiefs in the 80th minute to deliver heartbreak for the Rebels at AAMI Park.
Melbourne were looking to rebound from a 43-point thrashing by the Blues and while they didn’t get the win they did plenty to earn back respect.
Their loss meant a clean sweep of Australian teams by their Kiwi rivals through round 13.
Chiefs skipper Sam Cane said his finals-bound team “got out of jail”.
“We knew that the Rebels were a better side than what they showed on the points table and they weren’t going to be the same side that turned up to Eden Park last week,” Cane told Stan Sport.
“They showed that for the full 80 minutes.”
Rebels skipper Michael Wells said it was “incredibly disappointing”.
“You don’t get rewarded for participation so that’s where we sit,” he said.
“It’s a big step forward … but we’re still coming up a little bit short.”
Melbourne took the lead in the 71st minute with Reece Hodge slotting a penalty to put his team ahead 27-26.
They extended the margin with another penalty in the 77th but it ultimately wasn’t enough.
Chiefs five-eighth Josh Ioane was hero and villain for his team, setting up three of their tries but also gifting the Rebels two.
Melbourne led at the 47 minute mark after scoring two tries while they were a man down, with prop Pone Fa’amausili given a yellow card for some off the ball antics following a massive hit on Chiefs lock Naitoa Ah Kuoi.
Ioane threw a loose pass that was toed ahead by Rebels winger Andrew Kellaway for a try.
And just before halftime Rebels five-eighth Carter Gordon also intercepted an Ioane pass and dashed 80 metres to touch down.
But the Chiefs again nudged ahead 19-17 in the 57th minute when hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho drove across the line, with Ioane adding the extras.
It looked like the men from Hamilton might run away with the match after centre Emoni Narawa danced through some traffic to open up a nine point lead.
The Rebels rallied but the late try meant they still came up short.
Dean
Roar Rookie
Finally got to watch the game, after being on a media black out. I enjoyed it. See-sawed a bit. Thought it might get ugly for the Rebels but then ….. Gordon’s lovely intercept. Ioane threw 2 x tries the Rebels way. Not a great way to play into the NZ squad. I thought the Ref was consistent (in his inconsistency). Chiefs played the ruck very well and made it complicated for the ref, Rebels didn’t play as “smart” at the ruck. I was impressed by Gordon, Leota, Phillip, and Tuttle. Great to see Uelese playing like he is interested, a very talented player. Cane is not what he used to be. Jacobson played well, Lord went well. Thought that the Chiefs were mostly below their normal level. They will be glad to get home.
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Indeed. Powell needed the sense of mind to keep ball, but I think it may have been you who pointed out. There were no forwards in sight to truck the nut up.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Unfortunately Jooste couldn’t roost it!
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Jooste definitely the kicker. I was sat down that end.
Tim J
Roar Rookie
I ended up with a clean sweep Brett, you better drug test me.. :silly: :laughing:
Paulo
Roar Rookie
“so after the try and game would have continued exactly the same, kick off to the Rebels.” Not exactly. Yes, it’s the same restart, but the points are different, so different decisions would have been made and the game wouldn’t have played out the same.
Rocky B
Guest
4 min to go, Rebels should have taken the scrum instead of kicking a penalty. 10 out and centre of the field. Worst case scenario they would have run the clock down and if chiefs had won the ball they would have had to run it out from their own goal line. They probably would have scored a try with the chiefs a man down and would have been game won
Ruckit
Roar Rookie
(a) Most wins from all matches; (b) Highest aggregate points difference from all matches; (c) Most tries from all matches; (d) Highest aggregate difference of total tries for versus tries scored against from all matches; (e) Coin toss.
Gepetto
Roar Rookie
The fresh reserve in the 19 jersey may the worst attempted tackle I’ve seen in a while. He should be back in the local club comp for a few more years.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Not really. Simply because the Rebels took the points so after the try and game would have continued exactly the same, kick off to the Rebels. It’s different where a team doesn’t kick for goal because what happens after is totally different.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
I agree the TMO should be used to get things right. The point Gepetto made was: “The ref robbed the Rebels of victory with bad calls and disallowing the Matt Phillips’ first try.” So the fact the game would play out differently is exactly the point we were discussing. I do agree with you though that with the TMO we should have more accuracy or consistency.
Tez
Roar Rookie
When Uluese was out injured and Hanson was throwing in
Paulo
Roar Rookie
“Certainly nothing as obvious as running into your own player “ Yea, that should have been called back. Can understand he was tackled on the spot so arguably didn’t impact the play, but still. It happened in the Crusaders game from memory and it was called back.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
I think that the TMO's are looking at a lot of things we arnt told they are looking at DA. They check everything as its happening. Someone questioned a forward pass the other day but the ref had been given the info already the pass had been checked and was fine, so Im not taking from us not seeing it or the game not stopping that it hasnt been checked.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I think now they are getting back to a reasonable injury list we are seeing the issue. They can play decent footy, but Foote isn’t the coach to get the absolute best out of the group, or able to paper of the cracks of injury issues you should expect. Like the lack of good midfield options they had yesterday as an example. They were woeful for a while and a big factor was something like 19 injuries. Now they are decent but not as good as they could be.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Nah Hodge can do all that and be a good player. Because he’s a runner, not a playmaker. People need to accept Hodge for what he is, great at running hard lines. Not expecting him to be what he isn’t, a playmaker.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Wasn’t Jooste the kicker?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Running down the clock 30m out from your line for 2 mins isn’t leadership. It’s waiting for an error to serve the win on a platter to the opposition.
Double Agent
Guest
It's true the whole match would be different if the try was awarded. But that's not really the point. The TMO is providing input constantly into matches these days (far beyond what I thought was their brief) but on a possible try it's just crickets. It was very strange.
Double Agent
Guest
"The replay showed him clearly short CUW." It showed no such thing at all. It appeared the point of the ball touched the line. It was definitely worth a look. When I think of all the time the TMOs have wasted of my life going over and over things which were obvious from the beginning it's amazing this wasn't even looked at. " With the time it took to get over the line who cares what happens after that." Yes that next second was an eternity!! :laughing: