The Melbourne Rebels backed up last week’s victory over the Hurricanes with a nail biting 26-25 win over the Western Force in Perth. Despite going 15-3 down early, the Rebels stuck to their task and hit the front midway through the second half, holding off a late Force fightback to claim the four points.
Both sides scored three tries apiece but James O’Connor’s wayward boot proved costly in the final reckoning as the Rebels held on by the narrowest of margins. The win, the Rebels’ third from seven outings, takes them into third place in the Australian Conference ahead of their round eight bye.
The victory looked unlikely early on as the Rebels once again conceded early points before ever really appearing to have engaged in the contest. The home side had been in possession for almost all the five minutes after the kickoff and made that early territorial domination count with a Sam Wykes try. A ten-phase move advanced the Force downfield and, as gaps appeared, Gene Fairbanks and then Nathan Charles got close before Wykes, the big second-rower, was on hand to finish off the hard work.
Charles, the Force hooker, scored the game’s second try just five minutes later. James O’Connor returned an up-and-under with interest, darting through the Rebels’ defensive line to set up a guaranteed try. Selflessly, the young Wallaby handed the scoring duties to Charles as the home side cashed in on their early superiority.
O’Connor converted just one of the two tries and had the same success-rate from first half penalties. Cipriani, on the other hand, nailed his first attempt, from fully 46 metres on an angle, to leave the scoreline 15-3 after 20 minutes.
15-3 became 15-8 shortly afterwards when the returning Mark Gerrard scored with the first spell of Rebels possession. A multi-phase attack stretched the Force defence, with Rebels forwards consistently gaining yards. With the line in sight, Cipriani fed Gerrard from centre-field, and his angled run towards the left corner secured the Rebels’ first try of the night.
The influential Gerrard was then harshly adjudged to have committed a high-tackle worthy of ten minutes in the sin-bin. O’Connor’s inaccuracy with the boot continued however, as the Rebels fought to remain in the contest. This fight was fuelled by another searing Cipriani long-range penalty as the visitors began to acclimatise.
Seemingly unaware of the numerical disadvantage, the 14 Rebels set about pounding the Force line. An extraordinary 26-phase attack tested the Force defence to its limits and ate up valuable minutes of Gerrard’s yellow card. The Rebels were eventually rewarded for their continuity and persistence with a Cipriani penalty, taking them to halftime just a point down at 15-14.
Gerrard lined up for the second half at outside centre, with Lachlan Mitchell moving to the wing and Richard Kingi reverting to the fullback position he occupied so effectively against the Hurricanes. It took that remodelled unit all their collective strength to deny Force skipper, Nathan Sharpe, who carried the ball over the Rebels’ try-line but was unable to impart controlled downward pressure.
O’Connor got the scoreboard ticking over again for the Perth-based side, with a straightforward penalty as the second-half developed into a tactical kicking contest.
That was until Hugh Pyle ran in a 40-metre interception under the posts.
Force fullback, Cameron Shepherd, counter-attacked one of the many high kicks of the evening but in his desperation to keep the attack moving, his long pass was read by the Rebels lock, starting only because of the late injury to Kevin O’Neill. The rangy youngster galloped away into unguarded territory and dived under the posts.
The Rebels camp erupted in delight but before the euphoria of Pyle’s maiden try had subsided, Richard Kingi had broken his Super Rugby scoring duck. Faced with a routine penalty 25-metres out the mercurial Cipriani opted instead to loft a crossfield kick to the waiting Kingi who calmly gathered and touched down before the Force had chance to adjust to the unfamiliar scenario. Cipriani shaved the outside of the post with his conversion attempt but his quick thinking had already prompted the 26-18 lead.
The Rebels hitting the front sparked a Force fight-back and a long spell of pressure eventually told when the impressive Wykes showed a good turn of pace to get through the Rebels defence before the supporting Rory Sidey completed the formalities under the posts. O’Connor’s two-points cut the Rebels’ lead to just a single point with 12 minutes remaining.
The game fractured as nerves gripped both sides and errors betrayed desperate late attacks as both sides clamoured to have their noses in front at the final siren.
The decisive moment of late drama came six minutes from time as O’Connor lined up a penalty from 30-metres out, on an angle, to give his side the lead. Fortunately for the Rebels, the kick drifted agonisingly wide of the left-hand upright and the slender lead remained intact.
The Rebels’ set-piece, which had stood up well all night then took centre-stage, as a safe scrum set up good field position, forcing the Force to attack from 100-metres with under a minute of the contest to go. That challenged proved too much and the Rebels celebrated their first win on the road in their short history.
Consistency has been the watchword from the launch of Victoria’s first Super Rugby franchise and back-to-back wins, home and away, for both the first and second fifteens indicates the club is on the right path very early on.
Melbourne Rebels
1. Nic Henderson, 2. Ged Robinson, 3. Greg Somerville, 4. Alister Campbell, 5. Adam Byrnes, 6. Jarrod Saffy, 7. Michael Lipman, 8. Gareth Delve (vc), 9. Nick Phipps, 10. Danny Cipriani, 11. Luke Rooney, 12. Stirling Mortlock (c), 13. Lachlan Mitchell, 14. Richard Kingi, 15. Mark Gerrard
Reserves: 16. Luke Holmes, 17. Laurie Weeks, 18. Hugh Pyle, 19. Tim Davidson, 20. Sam Cordingley, 21. Peter Betham, 22. Afusipa Taumoepeau
Head Coach: Rod Macqueen
Western Force
1. Pek Cowan, 2. Nathan Charles, 3. Tim Fairbrother, 4. Sam Wykes, 5. Nathan Sharpe (c), 6. Richard Brown, 7. Matt Hodgson (vc), 8. Ben McCalman, 9. Brett Sheehan, 10. James O'Connor, 11. David Smith, 12. Gene Fairbanks, 13. Nick Cummins, 14.Rory Sidey, 15. Cameron Shepherd
Reserves: 16. Ben Whittaker, 17. Kieran Longbottom, 18. Tom Hockings, 19. Tevita Metuisela, 20. James Stannard, 21. Matt Brandon, 22. Pat Dellit
Head Coach: Richard Graham
Referee: Craig Joubert
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