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Will Genia unlikely for must-win Rebels clash against Crusaders
By Online Editors
Melbourne halfback Will Genia is likely to sit out his team's Super Rugby clash with the all-conquering Crusaders, but the Rebels won't be leaving anything in the tank as they attempt to lock down a finals berth.
The Rebels blew a golden chance to cement a maiden play-off spot with a 20-15 loss to the NSW Waratahs at AAMI Park on Friday night.
While the effort was there, they paid the price for poor discipline, too many handling errors and conceding 22 turnovers to their opponents' nine.
Melbourne coach Dave Wessels was frustrated by their performance, although he gave credit to the Waratahs who had their season on the line.
"The Waratahs played really well and put a lot of pressure on our ball and defended well," Wessels said.
"We probably just rushed things - we got our tails up and got a bit excited as we tried to get a ball away that wasn't on and that's frustrating."
In the remaining two games, they travel to Christchurch to face the defending champion and ladder-leader Crusaders, and then they're at home against the Chiefs.
Test halfback Will Genia must sit out a match as part of the Wallabies' rest policy, so while Wessels said he hadn't decided when that would be, it makes sense that he misses the trip to New Zealand.
The remainder of their Wallabies contingent have already sat out their quota of games.
But Wessels said his team would go all out to win both games rather than target the Chiefs, who are currently last in the New Zealand conference, therefore theoretically a more winnable game.
They need to finish in the top eight overall for a maiden finals appearance.
Melbourne have had one win in four trips to Christchurch, with a 20-10 victory back in round one of 2015.
"I don't think we've got that luxury," Wessels said.
"We've got to go to Christchurch with a view that we want to win.
"We've got a game that can cause most teams in this comp trouble, as long as we play it consistently for 80 minutes."
AAP
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Latest Comments
Very much so
Go to commentsI heard all this coming out of SA forever. I dont see enough of a desire to change anything coming from WR tho, only coming from individual nations and to be effective a change needs to be done for the sake of rugby not the sake of finances. I dont see WR or any nations really, disadvantaging themselves to enhance the product and thats probably whats going to be required to bring about genuine change.
Id like to see the individual comps go back to what they were. SA has the numbers to be extremely successful at running a home comp with 800k players and Millions in population. They could easily have a comp like Japan where they have 3 tiers of competition.
Then when these comps are back running efficiently then lets see a IPL type comp which employs the top 500 players in the world and travels around the globe relevent to the season doing 10 week comps or similar. Not sure thats a longterm answer or no answer at all but something needs to give. Particully for SA who are in an isolated part of the world. Will there be any enthusiasium for change? Cant see it.
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