Rebels 2: Rebels second half come back, just falls short

Thank you to the Melbourne Rebels Media Team for providing the post.

A late surge was not enough for the RaboDirect Rebels at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday night, as the Waratahs held on for a 30-21 win having led comfortably for the duration of the match.

The Rebels improved significantly upon their last FxPro Super Rugby fixture against the Brumbies, but once again a slow start proved costly as the Waratahs built an early lead which they never surrendered.

Captain Gareth Delve suggested that his side were paying the price for their wavering levels of effort and focus.

“Again our performance was pretty inconsistent – it was a very slow start from us but we seemed to pick up towards the end of the first half, then maybe went to sleep a little bit at the start of the second, but finished strongly,” Delve said.

“It’s easy to make the excuse of us being a young team, but we are building and we are getting better. I think that’s a massive step up on what last week was, but we need to start putting 80 minute performances together.”

The Rebels knew all too well that a strong start would be vital to finding their rhythm, but they could do little to stop the home side getting off to a flyer.

Winning the ball back from their own kick-off, the Waratahs spread it wide with the Melbourne defence in disarray, before full-back Bernard Foley spotted a big gap in the drifting defence and ran a clever switch line to score untouched after just 26 seconds.

With a valuable headstart, the hosts looked full of confidence and kept their momentum going with quick pick-and-drives, strong running lines and offloads from the tackle. The Rebels did well only to concede two penalties to the boot of Brendan McKibben as the Waratahs forwards repeatedly tried to blast their way over the Melbourne try-line.

It was 20 minutes into the game before the Rebels were able to string some phases together, and their hard work paid off when a pinpoint penalty kick to touch from the sublime boot of Mark Gerrard allowed hooker Ged Robinson to score from the ensuing lineout drive.

McKibben stretched the Waratahs’ lead to 16-7 with another shot at goal, but the Rebels were beginning to click with the ball in hand – another strong attacking set saw the visitors open up a gap in the defence only for the attempted offload to go astray.

A golden chance then went begging just before the half-time whistle, as a 14-phase move started by Kurtley Beale and Lachie Mitchell from their own 22 ended just a metre short of the tryline when the ball was lost as the Rebels’ forwards attempted to shove their way over.

The Waratahs blitzed the Rebels again shortly after the break when hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau scored from a beautifully orchestrated lineout move, the Sydney side showing their set-piece prowess again soon after when they ruthlessly quashed the Rebels attempt to try their own training paddock lineout routine.

While the Rebels defence was much improved, they struggled to contain their opponents’ big forward runners, who made easy ground around the breakdown and eventually got the Waratahs in position for their third try - centre Rob Horne worked his way over from short distance, McKibben’s conversion making it 30-7.

Horne gave the Rebels an opening soon after when he was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle on Beale, and Tim Davidson was the man to benefit from his side’s advantage, scoring his first Super Rugby try after patient build-up work from his team-mates.

Another perfect touch-finder from Gerrard and a strong rolling maul then gave Beale more than enough of a stage to show his talents, skipping and swerving to draw in two defenders before popping the ball to Mitchell who dived over to reduce the gap to nine points and set up an enthralling finale. But the Rebels couldn’t maintain possession to launch another attack as the clock wound down and the Waratahs guarded the ball in search of their own bonus point try.

While they will rue their early lack of focus, the 14-14 scoreline in the second half was indicative of a much-improved performance from the Rebels that bodes well for the rest of the season.