Melbourne Rebels
17
Match Complete
Blues
54
| 80 |  | D. Papali'i | ||
| 77 |  | B. Barrett | ||
| 76 | | Z. Sullivan | ||
| 65 | | B. Barrett | ||
| 64 | | O. Tu'ungafasi | ||
| 61 | | M. Telea | ||
| 59 | | B. Barrett | ||
| 58 | | F. Christie | ||
| 49 | | M. Telea | ||
| 46 | | F. Christie | ||
| R. Hodge | | 41 | ||
| B. Wilkin | | 40 | ||
| 33 | | R. Riccitelli | ||
| 28 |  | B. Barrett | ||
| R. Hodge | | 26 | ||
| A. Kellaway | | 25 | ||
| 11 | | S. Darry | ||
| R. Hodge | | 8 |
| 2 | Tries | 9 | ||
| 2 | Conversions | 3 | ||
| 1 | Penalty Goals | 1 | ||
| 0 | Field Goals | 0 |
Wallabies’ utility Andrew Kellaway returns to the Rebels starting side at outside centre, alongside Test teammate Reece Hodge for the match against the Blues at AAMI Park. Join The Roar from 7.35pm AEST for live updates.
Kellaway returned to action after injury last week with a commanding performance in Fiji as the Rebels just failed to run down a big first half deficit.
Prop Pone Fa’amausili joins Cabous Eloff in returning to the front row, while Trevor Hosea will pair with Harlequin teammate, Josh Canham in the second row.
Nick Jooste and Lukas Ripley have been recalled for the Round 7 clash, named on the bench alongside James Tuttle, Tuiana Taii Tualima, Angelo Smith, Sam Talakai, Matt Gibbon and Jordan Uelese.
Saturday’s match will be a special one for Jordan Uelese, who was named in Eddie Jones first squad of the year last Sunday.
Uelese, 26, will become the first homegrown Victorian to make 50 Super Rugby appearances for the Rebels after making his debut in 2017 against the Blues.
“As a kid, I always dreamt of playing for the Rebels, so to be able to play 50 matches for my hometown team and wear that jersey, it’s been a huge honour and I’m keen to keep putting my hand up to go to battle for this Club,” Uelese said.
The Blues – who have a 3-3 record to the Rebels’ 2-4 – have rested All Blacks Hoskins Sotutu and Stephen Perofeta after they had played all six matches so far. Winger Mark Telea returns after being rotated out while Patrick Tuipulotu is back in the starting side.
Game Information
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-off: 7:35pm (AEST)
Streaming: Stan Sport
Betting: Rebels $4.85, Blues $1.19 – odds via PlayUp
Teams
Rebels (1-15): Cabous Eloff, Alex Mafi, Pone Fa’amausili, Josh Canham, Trevor Hosea, Josh Kemeny, Brad Wilkin, Vaiolini Ekuasi, Ryan Louwrens, Carter Gordon, Monty Ioane, Reece Hodge, Andrew Kellaway, Lachie Anderson, Joe Pincus.
Replacements: Jordan Uelese, Matt Gibbon, Sam Talakai, Angelo Smith, Tuaina Taii Tualima, James Tuttle, Nick Jooste, Lukas Ripley.
Blues (1-15): Jordan Lay, Ricky Riccitelli, Nepo Laulala, Patrick Tuipulotu, Sam Darry, Adrian Choat, Dalton Papalii (c), Anton Segner, Finlay Christie, Beauden Barrett, Caleb Clarke, Harry Plummer, Rieko Ioane, Mark Telea, Zarn Sullivan.
Replacements: Soane Vikena, Ofa Tuungafasi, James Lay, Cameron Suafoa, Tom Robinson, Sam Nock, Corey Evans, Caleb Tangitau.
Referee: Reuben Keane.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Nah he got penalised earlier for lifting the leg. This time it was for dragging the maul down
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Nah, he got done for lifting the leg, it looked fairly innocuous but did help bring it down (illegally). Stand alone it probably wasn’t worthy of a yellow, but the ref did say he’d done it a few times and been warned. I think it’s a tough call, but probably fair given the context the ref referred to. The issue is from slightly lifting a leg in a maul, he gets carded, which means uncontested scrums and down to 13. The punishment does seem way much out of sync for the crime, but that’s just how the laws worked last night.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Yea, I missed that. My mistake. I didn’t see them send the extra player off, was trying to watch the game while the kids did Easter eggs… clearly a rookie mistake.
Wizz
Roar Rookie
Yes they have 4 or 5 point of difference players in team we have one or two ...big difference lol
savant
Roar Rookie
Thanks. That’s a punitive rule for such a critical position.
Paul D
Roar Rookie
Because you can’t unless you want to give up a player also and play a man down.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Yes they were.
Filstrup
Roar Rookie
My grandma would have shown the full package with half of the Rebs injured and the biased refereeing. The gap between NZ and Oz rugby? Simple, the best aussie players are O/S. SR TT its just a dud.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Because they’d have to drop a player
savant
Roar Rookie
I don’t understand why the Rebels didn’t say that they only had two hookers which would’ve meant that all scrums would’ve been uncontested. Sure it wouldn’t have helped the lineout but it would given them more ball. They could also have played a loose forward as hooker which would’ve helped them as well.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Definitely impacted them, and dropping in. Shocker who couldn’t actually play hooker. Do they have a plan B? Obviously not something they were able to come up with on the fly, but something management/coaching should be asking. They could have thought out how to counter BB wide kicks and chip kicks. It was predictable and aside from a couple charge downs (I think there were a couple), it didn’t seem like there was much counter going on. If there’s one thing you know for sure, BB is going to the clever chip or cross-field.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Or maybe the in game injury toll affected the team? Probably why they didn’t fall away nearly as much vs the Chiefs when they didn’t lose 3 front rowers to injury during the game.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Well Eloff’s was a poor penalty to be honest. He didn’t drag it down, he pushed against the blues maul, as is his right, and the blues collapsed under the pressure
Jacko
Roar Rookie
His kicking to set up trys was exceptional. was it 3 tries he set up or 4?
Jacko
Roar Rookie
The Blues suffered under the exact same situation v the Crusaders Twas and lost by 6 points. Big difference to losing by close to 30. Something has to change with that rule tho... Its just wrong.
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
You can see it in Anton Segner. Came to NZ as a kid to learn rugby and look at him now. It has been a process.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
What rule? They are not down to 13?
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Like being tackled in the air because you were jumping to catch a poor pass? That seemed pretty questionable. I mean technically yes, he was tackled in the air, but then using that standard, every winger diving for a corner can’t be touched either?
Paulo
Roar Rookie
I laughed out loud at the pullstart line :laughing:
Paulo
Roar Rookie
TWAS you’re normally better than this. Take the high road. The officiating was poor but I don’t think it adversely favoured one team over the other. It may look like that as one team was better able to take advantage of it, but that’s down to the respective class or individual player abilities. The officiating was arbitrarily and indiscriminately poor.