1
Rebels Super forwards cleared of serious injuries
By AAP
Beaten up by the Blues in their Super Rugby Pacific match, Melbourne received welcome news with some key forwards cleared of serious injury.
The Rebels led the Blues 17-13 at halftime at AAMI Park before the visitors piled on seven unanswered second half tries to run away with a thumping 54-17 victory.
Melbourne's cause wasn't helped by losing two hookers - Alex Mafi (finger) and Jordan Uelese (knee) as well as lineout-calling lock Trevor Hosea (knee) in the first half.
Test prop Pone Fa'amausili was assisted from the field too but it was due to cramping rather than a calf injury as initially feared.
A third hooker, Anaru Rangi, has also been battling a calf injury that ruled him out of selection for the Blues match.
Uelese, who was named in the Wallabies squad that will meet on the Gold Coast next Sunday, has a history of knee trouble while Hosea missed all of last year with a foot issue.
But the Rebels said on Monday the pair were expecte d to be available for their next Super clash, against the Crusaders, which follows this week's bye.
A club spokesman said the knees of both players were structurally stable, with the injuries determined to be severe corks.
Mafi's finger was a dislocation that pierced the skin but he too should be fit for their round eight clash.
Shell-shocked skipper Brad Wilkin said Melbourne's second half fade was inexcusable and they would need to lift against the fourth-placed Crusaders, who are the reigning champions.
"We have to be tougher," said flanker Wilkin, who was also included in the Wallabies squad.
"A game of rugby isn't going to be perfect and things are going to go against you but I think we could have been a bit tougher, sticking in the fight when it gets a bit tough and showing a bit of character.
"We did it in patches and some guys were showing it but we need a collective buy-in."
Despite the disappointing result, Rebels coach Kevin Foote lauded his captain, who has stepped in with Rob Leota sidelined after a ruptured Achilles.
"Brad's awesome - he's come through a big injury history and to see him get named in the Wallabies is awesome," Foote said.
"I'm really proud of him as he deserves this. He's going to go really well in gold."
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Stuart Lancaster 'wants out' of Racing 92 and eyeing Euro giants job
3
Henry Arundell lined up for early England homecoming
4
Government provides bleak assessment on the state of the Premiership
5
Latest Comments
Well that sux.
Go to commentsLike I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to comments