Rebels no match for Hurricanes who keep unbeaten run alive
Melbourne have been left to rue another slow start in crashing to the table-topping Hurricanes, who piled on the points in their Super Rugby Pacific clash in Palmerston North.
The unbeaten Hurricanes made a staggering 14 personnel changes to their line-up heading into the match but didn't skip a beat as they notched their fifth win of the season with a 54-28 victory.
The Rebels had no answer in the first half to the Kiwi outfit, who led 33-7 at the break on the back of five tries and were ahead 33-0 after 34 minutes.
Winger Salesi Rayasi grabbed two tries while skipper Brad Shields, who last played for the Hurricanes in 2018 before a stint in Europe, also crossed in his first match of the season after recovering from a foot injury.
Rebels lock Angelo Smith scored in the 39th minute to ensure his side at least lodged some points in a humiliating first half which will do little to help their case for survival.
In financial dire straits, Melbourne are still waiting on a decision from Rugby Australia on their future in the competition.
The Rebels rallied to open the scoring in the second half through centre Lukas Ripley, and the team came together when youngster Mason Gordon crossed in his Super debut.
Replacing Andrew Kellaway at fullback, the 21-year-old ran onto a ball from his Wallabies playmaker brother Carter and made his way through some heavy traffic to make it 47-19.
While Melbourne kept toiling away, the Hurricanes kept them at bay as they racked up a total of eight tries for the night.
Veteran halfback TJ Perenara was among the try-scorers while Jordie Barrett collected a five-pointer in each half in his return from a two-game suspension.
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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