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Rebels win comes at injury cost as Quade Cooper does the double over Brad Thorn

Quade Cooper receives medical attention during his side's 30-24 win over the Reds. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Melbourne have cracked a confidence-boosting win over Queensland to reaffirm their position at the top of the Australian Super Rugby conference.

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The Rebels ran in four tries to two for a 30-24 victory at AAMI Park on Friday for a welcome victory after three successive losses.

It was far from their best performance but it allowed Melbourne to move four points clear of their nearest rivals, the Brumbies, at least until their game in Canberra against the Sunwolves on Sunday afternoon to complete the round.

Rebels coach Dave Wessels said it was a game that in the past they may have lost so he felt his team had taken a “big step forward”.

“There’s a big growth in our team in our ability to control our emotions and get on to the next job,” Wessels said.

“We were leading tonight and then the game could have gone either way and maybe in the past we would have let some soft moments go, but we hung in there, played tough and strangled them.”

Despite dominating possession, territory and having the benefit of two Reds’ yellow cards, the Rebels only held a three point lead at halftime.

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Queensland lost skipper Samu Kerevi for tackling Will Genia in the air while Scott Higginbottom faced the same fate after illegally collapsing a maul with their discipline telling throughout the match.

After winger Marika Koroibete opened their scoring Melbourne took a leaf out of the Brumbies’ playbook and used their rolling maul for hooker Anaru Rangi to rumble across.

Queensland’s first half try was scored by Isaac Lucas, who replaced injured fullback Hamish Stewart midway through the half.

The Australian under-20s representative showed some individual brilliance to turn Koroibete inside out before touching down.

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Melbourne scored twice early in the second half to push the margin out to 24-11 but they were unable to shake the visitors.

The Rebels lost five-eighth Quade Cooper to a head-knock while he tried to tackle Kerevi.

Wessels said Cooper had concussion, putting him doubt for next Friday’s clash with the Bulls.

A minute later Reds prop Harry Hoopert was across the line, while the conversion and then a penalty strike by Bryce Hegarty kept their team in the game.

But the Rebels defence stood up to repel the visitors’ hopes of an upset and they were forced to settle for a bonus point.

Reds coach Brad Thorn said there was a lot to like about his team despite falling short.

“There was a lot of good stuff out there around the set piece – some real dominance there – and when we had the ball we were using it well and defensively there were some big shots,” Thorn said.

“The yellow cards didn’t help and there were a few other moments that put a bit of pressure on.”

Stewart’s shoulder will be further assessed back in Brisbane, with the coach fearful it could be serious.

AAP

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J
JW 52 minutes ago
Half-back depth is the flaw in 'Razor's' 4-4-4 Rugby World Cup plan

Well there’s a couple of distinctions here that are important aren’t there?


First though like I replied to Tk where does it say theres need to test vets, or proven reliable players? It is simply ‘test quality’.


Now, I have created a list that I think is test quality, so all weve got to do is upskill the missing pieces right? No. Razor might not mean to have given every player half a dozen matchs but he will want to have identified and assured himself that each individual is indeed test quality. So yes, plays like Darry and Lord may still be included in a few squads and used so he’s happy to include them as say 5th and 6th ranked locks, but that doesn’t mean he needs to go to the same level to ensure for himself the 7th and 8th ranked locks.


He might be happy basing performances off SR Finals, or organizing an AB XV match against a team like France or SA with similar locking depth (even organizing say Warner Dearns to be part of the Japan XV etc), and I’m sure they’re going to have a very large squad over in South Africa for two months.


I don’t think he is quite in the same predicament as SA to have to rest top stars. And this is obviously just goal setting, they’re supposed to be hard. As you can see by the context around this series, arbitrary targets like everyone getting some minutes are made. That could also simply be how he ensures he has met the 4. So hookers would be ticked, as he’s already used 5 at test level. If you looked at the Baabaas SA game you’d see Beehre performing like an accomplished test player, that already makes 7 locks with more than 2 full seasons to go. You take the point BA was making about Marshalls previous remarks about Razor want players to be able to play 3/4/5 different positions, that would mean if Razor was really happy with Finau at lock last week he already has 8 test quality locks as well, etc, etc.


TLDR sorry for the big reply, it’s just a goal, the teams not going to suddenly fail if he doesn’t reach it, I think theres many means and many players for him to be comfortable in getting 4 in each position. He’s obviously not going to be able to get 4 proven, hardened test players in each by then, no.

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