1
Rebels make changes in the halves for Brumbies rematch
By AAP
Melbourne will have a new halves pairing to take on the high-flying Brumbies on Friday night with halfback Ryan Louwrens undergoing biceps surgery, which rules him out for the rest of the Super Rugby AU season.
One of the Rebels' best this year, Louwrens suffered the injury while making a tackle in their last-round win over Western Force.
Fiji international Frank Lomani is at No.9, with former Red James Tuttle on the bench.
Melbourne coach Dave Wessels named Andrew Deegan at five-eighth and shifted Matt Toomua to inside centre, saying he wants more from his backline in the Leichhardt Stadium clash.
He has also included big outside centre Campbell Magnay, with Billy Meakes starting in the reserves.
"We feel our young forward pack have been going well but we've lacked a bit of cohesion in our backs," Wessels said.
"Campbell is an out and out 13 and he will make a big impression for us linking the inside and outside of our attack.
"This is an important game for our backs who need to take a step up."
Currently third, the Rebels are looking to inflict the Brumbies' first loss of the season and start to lock down a finals berth.
"We want to start building some momentum as we did at the start of the year when we had a bit of a slow start and started to build into it," Wessels said.
"This game is important for that - the Brumbies are a team we like playing against and we've had a fair amount of success against - so this is an opportunity to try to start to play with some intensity."
Melbourne Rebels: Reece Hodge, Andrew Kellaway, Campbell Magnay, Matt Toomua (c), Marika Koroibete, Andrew Deegan, Frank Lomani, Isi Naisarani, Brad Wilkin, Josh Kemeny, Trevor Hosea, Matt Philip, Jermaine Ainsley, Jordan Uelese, Cameron Orr. Melbourne will have a new halves pairing to take on the high-flying Brumbies on Friday night with halfback Ryan Louwrens undergoing biceps surgery, which rules him out for the rest of the Super Rugby AU season. Efitusi Ma'afu, Cabous Eloff, Pone Fa'amaluli, Michael Stolberg, Richard Hardwick, Rob Leota, James Tuttle, Billy Meakes.
- Melissa Woods
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Rassie Erasmus discusses idea of leaving Boks to coach another country
3
Clear favourite emerges for Munster job amid Graham Rowntree exit
4
'We just haven't got big people like South Africa': Ex-All Black
5
Latest Comments
Ford completely took the energy out the game for us, waving his hands telling people to calm down. Just for us to die off and lose the momentum.
Bringing him on all the time to ‘close out’ games is condescending to Smith. Get Ford out and let Marcus Smith & Fin Smith run the show. The future is them so give them the keys and let them get on with it.
Go to commentsTaking Marcus Smith off was a big puzzle and probably cost England the game. However, Abs created more opportunities and scored some tries but left a lot out there through sloppy execution, not playing to the ref and no enforcement of English off-side play. The fact the game was close all through made it worth watching but it was a frustrating pectacle. English succeeded in slowing the game down and were in the refs ear which Gardner allowed. I think Ireland or France will punish the sloppy execution more than England so still much for ABs to work on.
Go to comments