Melbourne Rebels 2011

[Moses]

It's not as terrible as some claim, but it's not great either.

My pitch would be 20 seconds of highlights of Mortlock, Cipriani and maybe Freier in national colours, then show them standing together in the Rebels strip, and a caption like

"Join OUR rebellion
www.melbournerebels.com.au"

 

[Paul Roberton]

It's not as terrible as some claim, but it's not great either.

My pitch would be 20 seconds of highlights of Mortlock, Cipriani and maybe Freier in national colours, then show them standing together in the Rebels strip, and a caption like

"Join OUR rebellion
www.melbournerebels.com.au"

I like it. Throw in some All Black footage of Somerville laying some bone jarring tackles and you'd make the Gruen Transfer!

 

[Moses]

Might have a better go at this

First scene: Danny Cipriani and Kelly Brook (in a bikini of course)
Second scene: Mortlock's 2003 intercept try [image]Stirling Mortlock - 2003 Intercept.jpg|thumb[/image]
Third scene: Sommerville smashing someone like Johnny Wilkinson.. surely that has happened at some point
Fourth scene: Cipriani, Mortlock and Sommerville in Rebels colours. Voice over: "Join OUR rebellion in 2011, details at melbournerebels.com.au"

 

[Paul Roberton]

Might have a better go at this

First scene: Danny Cipriani and Kelly Brook (in a bikini of course)
Second scene: Mortlock's 2003 intercept try [image]Stirling Mortlock - 2003 Intercept.jpg|thumb[/image]
Third scene: Sommerville smashing someone like Johnny Wilkinson.. surely that has happened at some point
Fourth scene: Cipriani, Mortlock and Sommerville in Rebels colours. Voice over: "Join OUR rebellion in 2011, details at melbournerebels.com.au"

Moses, I like the scene or sound of ANYONE smashing Johnn Wilkinson! There's gotta be some good youtube footage around... Actually, you might be interested in a little photostory presentation I did of the squad at www.rebel-army.com its on the right side, the thumbprint has Jarrod Saffy in it.

 

[Set piece magic]

if anyone is looking for some great footage of jonny getting rolled van style then i have a personal favourite from 2002 in mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6J6gVu4l1k

very satisfying, sadly irrelevant to the advertisment however.

 

[TOCC]

i think its ok, like someone mentioned, its obviously targeting the non-rugby public

I also think that bone-jarring tackle type clip is a dangerous one to go down, the NRL have been trying to use that style of advertising in Melbourne for years.

 

[Paul Roberton]

i think its ok, like someone mentioned, its obviously targeting the non-rugby public

I also think that bone-jarring tackle type clip is a dangerous one to go down, the NRL have been trying to use that style of advertising in Melbourne for years.

TOCC: I hadn't really thought about it until you mentioned it but yes, you're right about that. Always action-packed, big tackle and a swooping Billy Slater sprinting or sliding across the turf! On reflection, think Rebels TVC was quite good. It's actually a reasonable attempt at a viral campaign. At the very least, it foreshadows and teases, forcing the viewer to google the Melbourne Rebels. My favourite part is the 5 star pledge ( the logo) as recurring street art through the ad. It actually reminds me of Tom Keneally's "Blow that whistle ref" commerical for the NRL a few years back.

 

[TOCC]

Paul Roberston, i think its also the reason that the film clip focused on scrums and lineouts, to differentiate themselves from league even further..

 

[CanadianRugby]

is the injury Morty is getting over just recovery from the surgery or did he re-injury in training or something?

 

[Travi34]

re-injury/soreness.

will play on saturday at ballarat though.

 

[en_force_er]

I think it's a case of him being a prized possession so they are proceeding with extra caution.

 

[Travi34]

rumour says a certain paul, had a 15 min interview with someone called snorky. may have some good answer. stay tuned for more!

I'll post a link in here.

 

[CanadianRugby]

Right, its been a whole five minutes since I've had my fix of Rebels rugby, and now I'm inspired by RugbyReg's article, so I'm going to talk about my expectation this year.
Without listing the whole fixture list here, I EXPECT 3 wins, am hopeful for 4, and would very happy with 5+
Expected: Both games against the Force, and the Highlanders.
Hopeful: Sharks in Week 4 at Melbourne, Cheetahs Week 14 in SA

Part of my logic here is that it takes every team a while to find the combinations during a seasons, even established teams (look at Kurtley's journey last year with the 'Tahs), but will take even longer for the Rebels, so the later Rebels will be a better team than the early season Rebels, simply because of the steep learning curve. So Force in Perth Week 7 and in Melbourne Week 18. Highlanders in Melbourne Week 9. The Hopefully is Sharks having to travel early, so maybe get them unprepared during tour, but they are a good team. Cheetahs are NOT a good team and it will be week 14, but it will be during the SA tour. So I'd be happy with 3 wins and some signs of hope for next year. Thoughts?

 

[Lee Grant]

It seems to be a modest target but it is a tough ask for brand new teams to compete against established teams in an established competition in any sport. The good thing for the Rebels is that they have recruited experienced players to cope with the situation. The other side of that is that if a team has too many mature players they could run out of puff in games.

As has been discussed many times: not only will the matchday players in the opening rounds have to learn to play with each other, but also there is the additional problem of finding out who the best matchday players are.

As a Tahs fan I will be happier to play them away in Round 1 than later on.

 

[qwerty51]

As a Tahs fan I will be happier to play them away in Round 1 than later on.

Was hoping the play them in the middle of the season, then we could give our first XV a rest. :fishing

 

[Aussie D]

Remember, the Rebels approached the Storm about sharing the services of Johns as a HB coach/consulting and they agreed.

Does anyone else find this a worry after his brother got in Quade Cooper's ear about coming over to league in 2007 when hired by the Reds in a consultancy role. I hope he has more class than his brother in this regard.

 

[RugbyFuture]

Mungos have class?

 

[stoff]

Well at the game at ballarat, mortlock is looking a bit stiff when he runs, but I never really took notice of his running style before. He ran an inside ball of cips for a nice try. Other standouts were cipriani looping back off vuna to tear through the defense and a nice vuna try tearing through traffic on half time. Scrum has been a mess so far but the lineout looks good. Also looked like delve was captaining. If there are any innacuracies in the ballarat courier's report tomorrow morning blame me because I have been talking the reporter through what's happening.

 

[inthestands]

Score progression [I'm not there...taken from Rebels Facebook]

Fiji 3-0
Rebels 7-3 (Mitchell try Cipriani conversion)
Rebels 14-6 (no record of scorers)
Rebels 21-6 (Mortlock try, Cipriani conversion)
Rebels 21-13
Rebels 28-13 (Cipriani try + convert)
Rebels 35-13 (Cooper Vuna try Cirpriani goal)
HALF-TIME
Rebels 42-13 (try? Hilgendorf goal)
Rebels 42-20
Rebels 42-27
FULL-TIME

So 5 tries to one in the first half, then outscored two tries to one in the second (imagine their second team was on the field, but even so, you'd think the 2nd xv would be better than the Fiji side, wouldn't you?)

Anyway, three from three, another six tries. Big tests will be how their score lines up against the Waratahs next week with NSW saying they will play everyone they can (which the Rebels did tonight with Mortlock playing) and how their result next week against the Crusaders fares with the reds game tonight (Reds 35-10; again, might be a misread for next week given Reds were pretty much full strength and Crusaders were without McCaw, Crotty, Carter, Ellis, Flynn, Fotualii, Franks, Franks, Guildford, Maitland, Poff, Read, Thorne, S.Whitlock and SBW).

 

[Lee Grant]

Melbourne Rebels crush Fiji 42-27 in Ballarat

* AAP
* From: Herald Sun
* January 29, 2011 10:23PM

FORMER Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock has made a try-scoring debut for the Melbourne Rebels in his first game since May last year.

Mortlock showed he was finally over a long-term back injury by powering over for a first-half try in the new Super Rugby franchise's 42-27 trial win over Fiji in Ballarat.

"I was considerably more nervous than what I would have been for a normal trial, but it was good nervous," the 33-year-old said.

"It was nice to get back on the horse."

Mortlock was found to have a serious disc problem which required surgery soon after his announcement he would move from the Brumbies to Rod Macqueens's Rebels for 2011.

The Rebels made it three-from-three in their inaugural pre-season, with a litmus test against New Zealand powerhouse the Crusaders awaiting them next week.

Five first-half tries from Lachie Mitchell, James Hilgendorf, Mortlock, Danny Cipriani and Cooper Vuna, as well as one in the second term from Heath Tessman, ensured the victory in hot conditions in the Victorian gold fields.

Cipriani booted five conversions and Hilgendorf one in front of 3,445 fans at St Patrick's College.

"This was the nucleus of a good side here," Macqueen said.

"And they've been training together for quite a while. For instance their set-pieces, the scrums and lineouts were of good quality and that's what we needed."

Cipriani, starting at fullback, scored a brilliant individual five-pointer, while former Newcastle Knight Vuna has now scored in all three trials.