Melbourne Rebels
3
Match Complete
Western Force
28
| 79 |  | B. Ralston | ||
| 56 |  | I. Prior | ||
| 44 |  | I. Prior | ||
| 43 | | I. Prior | ||
| 42 | | K. Godwin | ||
| M. To'omua | | 35 | ||
| 27 | | I. Prior | ||
| 26 | | T. Anstee | ||
| 19 | | I. Prior |
| 0 | Tries | 3 | ||
| 0 | Conversions | 2 | ||
| 1 | Penalty Goals | 3 | ||
| 0 | Field Goals | 0 |
Round Two of Super Rugby Pacific wraps up with with an all Australian clash as the Melbourne Rebels take on rivals, the Western Force at AAMI Park, Melbourne. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:45 pm (AEDT).
The Rebels will be hoping that they can give their home fans something to cheer about after 287 days without a game played at AAMI Park. Based on the performance in round one, the fans might not be holding their breath. A 5-23 loss to the Reds in an ugly game was disappointing and Rebels coach Kevin Foote has reacted by giving the reigns back to the highly experienced Matt To’ouma who will start at fly half.
The Rebels started with youngster Carter Gordon and while he can’t take all the blame for the loss, he didn’t have a good night and the Rebels really need to find a way to become a genuine attacking threat.
To’ouma will likely look to bring debutant Ray Nu’u into the game plenty and fans are in for a treat if this partnership clicks. The 23 year old inside centre is a scary sight in full flight and as Foote puts it “Ray is a bulldozer – he’s very strong and purpose built for 12,” so expect a number of crash balls from the Rebels.
The Force will feel that they should be heading into this fixture with one win already on the board having led against the Reds with just two minutes left in the game. The fact that they lost will make them a very focused and tough challenge for the Rebels this week.
Centre Bayley Kuenzle is out due to concussion with the highly experienced Richard Kahui able to provide some guidance and support to young fly half Reesjan Pasitoa.
Other than that change, coach Tim Simpson is staying with the same team as last week and why wouldn’t he – the Force played well against the Brumbies and the Rebels should be worried about the work rate of the Force’s pack who were not overcome by the more experienced Canberra forwards.
Prediction
It is not going to be a happy home coming for the Rebels as the Force spoil the party and steal the points.
Force to win by 10 points.
Game Information
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-off: 7:45pm (AEDT), Saturday 26th February 2022
Live stream: Stan Sport
Betting: Rebels $1.90, Force $1.90 – odds via PlayUp
Referee: Nic Berry
Assistant Referee: James Palmer, Jordan Way
Teams
Rebels
1. Cameron Orr, 2. Jordan Uelese, 3. Cabous Eboff, 4. Matt Philip, 5. Ross Haylett-Petty, 6. Sam Wallis, 7. Brad Wilkin, 8. Michael Wells (c), 9. Joe Powell, 10. Matt To’ouma, 11. Glen Vaihu, 12. Raymond Nu’u, 13. Stacey Ili, 14. Lachie Anderson, 15. Reece Hodge
Replacements:
16. James Hanson, 17. Matt Gibbon, 18. Sef Fa’agase, 19. Thomas Nowlan, 20. Tamati Ioane, 21. James Tuttle, 22. Carter Gordon, 23. Young Tonumaipea
Force
1. Tom Robertson, 2. Feleti Kaitu’u (c), 3. Santiago Medrano, 4. Fergus Lee-Warner, 5. Izack Rodda, 6. Brynard Stander, 7. Kane Koteka, 8. Tim Anstee, 9. Ian Prior, 10. Reesjan Pasitoa, 11. Manasa Mataele, 12. Richard Kahui, 13. Kyle Godwin, 14. Toni Pulu, 15. Jake Strachan
Replacements:
16. Andrew Ready, 17. Harrison Lloyd, 18. Greg Holmes, 19. Ryan McCauley, 20. Ollie Callan, 21. Isaak Fines-Leleiwasa, 22. Jake McIntyre, 23. Byron Ralston
HiKa
Roar Rookie
Check the details on the Kiwi assistant coaches and academy head that Tony Lewis has brought in for Sampson. Kahui @ 12 helps, but there's a lot of serious quality in their coaching set up now, too.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
You are right on the back row. All 3 are basically the same. Would be ok if the Rebels were playing a high tempo game but they are not. They’re using a big back row game plan with a small back row
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Should be starting. Wallis and Wells is a horrible 6 and 8 pair. Too like for like.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
He’s test standard. But as a hard running 13/15 with a booming kick. He’s not playing his best game of running those hard outside lines.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It’s actually one of the few great marketing things they’ve done. Buying into something organic and authentic. Actually gives them a chance of connecting to the local junior base a lot better.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It’s actually nothing to do with corporate culture. It’s buying into the organise “Burn Boyz/City” culture that all the local boys created themselves. If you look over the social media of the melbourne bred players it’s something they’ve been saying since 2018.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
People in glass houses mate. How much is Vunivalu being paid to be perennially injured? How much was Quade paid to be exiled from training? The biggest thing the Rebels has been is a place for opportunity for players who’ve been overlooked. Players like Maddocks, Hodge, McMahon. Plenty of kicked on well, but doing so also means you get the guys like Sam Wallis that are good players, but stuck down on the depth chart for a reason.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Burn City is a reference to Melbourne. It’s actually come from the young players coming up and they’ve embraced the culture of the local players. They’ve been referring to themselves as “Burn Boys” since the guys like Leota and Uelese started coming through.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
They are missing 25-35% of their best 23 which is going to hurt. Especially with it concentrated in certain positions meaning you have guys who wouldn’t even be in the 23 now starting. But the lack of attacking intent is a concern. The Rebels scored 14 tries in TT last season, and that’s after going tryless in the first game. They’ve now gone tryless 2 consecutive weeks.
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
How good was Ioane?!? Love to see more of him going forwards
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
That will be a good match up with the amount of injuries the rebels have
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
It is pretty clear from Hodges form inmost of his internationals and super rugby matches that he just does not have what it takes to be a test star. Where error minimisation is key, Hodge is far too much of a liability despite his strengths. A confidence player who is most of the time out of sorts is just not who the Wallabies need going forwards. Bit of a shame with the power of his boot.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Maybe. But the intent to attack from SR TT last year just seems to have disappeared. I’ve got no problem if they want to play conservative. But surely you need to keep the ball, maintain pressure to try and convert to 3s. Rebels seemed intent to give the Force the ball around halfway all night.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Eloff not Wallabies eligible. Arrived late 2019 - takes five years to qualify on residency now so will qualify late 2024 if that is his goal.
jeznez
Roar Guru
"Burn City" is a reference to what their locally grown players call themselves, The Burn Boyz. Burn being a play on 'bourne - as in MelBurn.
Crazy Horse
Roar Pro
Playing against the Force wearing a largely Ocean Blue jersey. It was very confusing and took a while to mentally adjust that when the Ref called “blue” he meant the Rebels.
Kick n Clap
Guest
Bossman, I think you “over averaged the crowd mate?” Lucky to be a thousand in there? To fair though all the TV games have had NO crowds? I blame STAN.
Chufortah
Guest
Hodge has no rugby smarts, wilts under pressure (not just the last two games but historically), and is the most over-rated player I’ve seen. He would make a great league player. No offence for the NRL - he needs a simpler game as he tries way too hard above his limited ability
Chufortah
Guest
Yep that jersey is horrible - it feels like a club that’s happy to promote an image, but somewhere along the way the players forgot that how you play is your image, not some ghastly jersey and an nice corporate culture that I’m guessing some people who have never played the game got paid $$$ to come up with ad campaign - sounds like it has Scomo all over it ;)
Chufortah
Guest
Wow Toomua and Hodge were woeful. Hodge is particular is an athlete in a very dump person’s body. His errors are off, he’s skittish, and fullback gives him too much responsibility. The only place I would play him is inside centre - just tell him to run hard and straight, and never do anything else. Toomua did another of his useless 30m grubbers to give the ball back, and not even his defence these days is best. Let’s home the Wallabies turn to the future - the obsession with blokes who have potential but have never done anything is quite worrying. I would do close Quade in that list (amazing as he can be in the odd game), and many of his mates overseas (Skelton, MacMahon, Beale, etc).