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How the Melbourne Rebels can achieve their first-ever finals appearance with a win over Force
By AAP
Melbourne are expecting their Super Rugby AU clash with Western Force on Saturday to have a grand final feel, with finals hopes on the line for the Rebels.
The teams will meet in in Newcastle in the last regular round, with Melbourne needing to beat the Force by four points or more in order to pip the NSW Waratahs for third spot and secure a qualifying final spot.
The winless Force have their own motivation as they can exact some revenge on the Rebels, who survived a 2017 Super Rugby cull at their expense.
The Wallabies utility back Reece Hodge, who's likely to shift from fullback to the centres to accommodate the return of injured skipper Dane Haylett-Petty, said they were expecting the Force to come hard.
"We've done a lot of prep on them and hopefully we know what's coming but we also think they're going to throw some trick plays and all sorts of stuff as it's their grand final," Hodge said on Tuesday.
Although only turning 26 last week, Hodge has been with the Rebels since 2016 - longer than any other player in the touring party - and has been a part of late season fade-outs which has cost them playing in finals.
But he said the team was focusing about what they can achieve now, rather than what they've missed.
"It's probably more a positive mind-set this week as we've got a chance to do something special that the club's never done before so we're not thinking about what could go wrong," said Hodge, who is the club's leading pointscorer.
"We're trying to think about important this game is and how excited we all are to be the first Rebels team to make finals.
"It would mean everything to us."
"It's all focused on us; our destiny is in our own hands and we're not worried about them.
"They are out of the equation in terms of how we're preparing for the game."
Hodge believes he's been playing his best rugby at 15 over the last month but will shift to wherever required.
"I've felt really comfortable at the back and thought we've created some good opportunities but whatever role I've got to play this week then I'm happy to do it for the team," he said.
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Latest Comments
Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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