Thank you to the Rebels Media Team for providing post and photograph.
The RaboDirect Rebels defied all the odds and battled their way to an historic 28-19 upset victory over the Crusaders at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
The seven-time champions fought back from an early Melbourne onslaught to lead 19-10 at half time, but two tries in as many minutes late in the game from Nick Phipps and Stirling Mortlock gave the Rebels a lead they protected bravely, keeping the Crusaders scoreless in the second half with a fierce defensive effort.
Captain Gareth Delve said that his side are finally beginning to reap the rewards for the belief that has been building from their increasingly impressive performances this season.
“That last 20 minutes, when we got those couple of tries and held them out for the whole of that second half without scoring, I think that’s the culmination of all the work we’ve done, all that belief that’s built up,” said Delve.
“I think that it’s been building for a long time but it’s nice that it’s finally come to the fore."
The Rebels knew they had to take the fight to the visitors, and began attacking from the outset with Kurtley Beale once again directing play assuredly from five-eighth. The Melbourne forwards ran fearlessly and were ruthless in their ball protection, giving the home side almost all the possession and territory in the opening period.
Beale almost opened the scoring with a great turn of pace and a deft chip that the last defender just reached first, but the Rebels continued to pummel the try line, and Phipps eventually burrowed over to reward his forwards’ work with a well-deserved try which Beale converted.
The Crusaders had barely touched the ball or even ventured into the Rebels’ half in the opening quarter, but two long-range penalties from the boot of Tom Taylor kept his side in touch as Beale added another three points of his own for a 10-6 scoreline.
Although the Rebels had managed to earn an incredible 75% of possession through their forwards’ hard graft, the Crusaders quickly stole the lead with a turnover from a well-orchestrated kick chase. Vice-captain Hugh Pyle’s valiant last-ditch tackle held up the counter-attack only momentarily, as the supporting Sam Whitelock found space around the tackle to run over untouched.
Taylor added the extras, and while his team maintained the pressure in the final minutes of the first half the staunch Rebels’ defence limited the Crusaders to two further penalty goals for a 10-19 lead at half time.
The Rebels started the second half just as they had the first, almost crossing the try line soon after the restart but for a pass that just couldn’t find the supporting runner. Their early pressure told however, as the Crusaders conceded two penalties in front of the posts that Beale had no trouble knocking over to put Melbourne right back in the contest at 16-19.
The Crusaders began to look more and more threatening as the half wore on, their electric back three using the space that opened up as both teams began to tire, but the Rebels defence was up to the task and shut down every threat that came their way.
The match then turned in a heartbeat just after the hour mark, as the Rebels finally cracked the solid Crusaders’ defence for their second try of the night. A fantastic offload out of the tackle from Caderyn Neville put Mark Gerrard through a gap, and his selfless pass inside to Phipps saw the scrum half pick up his second try of the night and send the 18,423-strong crowd into a frenzy.
Moments later Mortlock intercepted a pass and linked well with Cooper Vuna, who drew in the last two defenders and offloaded out of contact back to the former Wallaby captain who launched himself over the line in a dive that brought the Rebels fans to their feet once again.
With the lead now at 28-19 with 10 minutes to play, the Rebels surged with an infamous victory now well within their grasp. Every Crusaders’ attack was met with crushing Melbourne defence, and rather than protect their lead they kept attacking until Jaco Peyper blew the final whistle to unleash wild celebrations both on the field and in the stands.
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