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Rebels stick with Dane Haylett-Petty
By Online Editors
Wallabies outside back Dane Haylett-Petty will captain Melbourne Rebels again as the Victorian club strives for a first Super Rugby finals spot.
Entering their tenth season Melbourne have never logged more than seven wins, a tally they have achieved in four of their last five campaigns, some of which they started well only to fade in the closing stages.
Haylett-Petty, who plays winger or fullback, retains the role he held in 2019.
"Last year I took over just before round one, it felt like I was winging it a bit," Haylett-Petty said.
"I definitely learnt a whole lot of lessons as the whole team did.
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"But we've talked a lot about being a start up (franchise) and we're only ten years old and being innovative.
"I feel like the leaders have had a lot of say, taken a lot of control, a lot of responsibility, a lot of ownership, we've had a lot of fun with it.
"The big strength for us is the stability we've got. It's the first time we've had in our ten-year history the same chairman, CEO, head coach, captain, all the coaching staff are the same.
"We're just building from a strong foundation."
Haylett-Petty felt the Rebels' 2020 roster had a lot of depth.
"I think the Rebels have done a really good job in their off-season in terms of recruiting," the 30-year-old said.
"We've lost some young guys but we've replaced them with a lot of Super Rugby experience.
"Guys like Wellsy (backrower Michael Wells), (back Andrew) Kellaway, (halfback) Ryan Louwrens.
"They are going to add a lot to our season.
"We used the least number of players in Super Rugby last year and I really think we've got a lot of depth to get us through this season."
The Rebels play the Brumbies in a trial in Albury on Thursday before starting their Super campaign against Japan's Sunwolves in Fukuoka on Saturday week.
Melbourne's Super W side will have co-captains, with PNG international and new recruit Mel Kawa joining 2019 skipper Meretiana Robinson.
- AAP
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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