Melbourne Rebels 2011

[inthestands]

Anyone know what's going on with the vibe in Melbourne? Trying to keep track of score via Twitter and Facebook; crowd went up as 13,013 and someone had a crack at it saying it is about 100; another said the VRU has no idea and one 'fan' posted "Are the VRU actually trying to reduce support?"

Looks odd from afar... not sure where it's coming from...

 

[Waratah]

I think the Crusaders are still in their ginger Jedi pre season phase so not up to it at the moment.

 

[wobbly]

19-14 to saders with 10 to go.

Rebels have lost most of their line outs and saders have been lucky with forward asses and turn overs. Saders sin bin rebs 10 out on attack.

 

[wobbly]

Rebels only needed to clear from ruck to score but someone had white line fever. Rebels scrum 5 out

 

[wobbly]

Bombed the try!

 

[wobbly]

Scrum doing well

 

[wobbly]

Re s applying pressure, lineout 12 out

 

[wobbly]

19-14 saders in a typically lucky win. High quality match for a trial, better than many tahs games i've been to. Rebels will be competitive this season.

 

[wobbly]

I was impressed with Phipps and Hilgendorf, when replaced with Kingi and Cips the Rebels lost fluency and weren't as threatening. Cips, Hux and Gerard will kick away too much ball and the game offers more opportunity to counter-attack.

With Somerville, Delve, Mortlock and a few other experienced and consistent performers Forming a reliable core, Vuna and Hilgendorf creating opportunist breaks and a good defensive structure, we should worry a few teams without setting the world on fire. 3-4 wins certainly possible I reckon.

 

[Red Rooster]

Can anyone list the starting XV for the Rebels and what changes occured as macqueen said this would be his strongest lineup

 

[wobbly]

Huxley
Du Plessis
Mortlock
Vuna
Taupoemea (sp?)
Hilgendorf
Phipps
Delve
Lipman
Mcdonald?
Byrnes
Campbell
Somerville
Robinson
Henderson?

Weeks
Blake
Tessman
Saffy
Chamberlain
Kingi
Cipriani
Betham

 

[wobbly]

That was my best guess as ground announcing was woeful. Starting blindside is a guess.

Betham made a couple of incisive breaks in last 10.

Scrum improved with Weeks at TH, but i'm confused as to what the order of scrum replacements were. It seemed that Somerville played out 80, starting at TH, moving to loose for Weeks then Blake. Blake trimmed significantly but slow and lumbering.

Saffy looked ok too.

 

[Stu Wilsons Gloves]

That was my best guess as ground announcing was woeful. Starting blindside is a guess.

Betham made a couple of incisive breaks in last 10.

Scrum improved with Weeks at TH, but i'm confused as to what the order of scrum replacements were. It seemed that Somerville played out 80, starting at TH, moving to loose for Weeks then Blake. Blake trimmed significantly but slow and lumbering.

Saffy looked ok too.

Funnily enough I just ran into Jarrod Saffy in Brunswick street after getting the papers and having a feed. Went up and introduced myself and had a brief chat, seems like a nice fella.

As for the game, we looked alright. Most of the foward play seemed to be on the opposite side of where I was sitting so I cannot comment too much on the forwards.

But I had a good look at Stirling and Lachlan Mitchell and some of their defensive positioning was poor. When Stirling got turned easily a couple of times in def when the Crusaders ran good lines in attack. He was particulary slow in the chase and has no pace off the mark. I just hope its a conditioning thing, but he was a geniune asset in attack. Mitchell got caught out woefully in his positioning a couple of times and came in far too much from his line giving the Crusaders an easy try by overlap.

The atmosphere at the game was a bit muted but the canapes were awesome espeically the mini hamburgers. As an aside Robbie Fruen looked awesome, I have been hearing about this bloke since his school days at Mana College in Wellington, he could be pushing hard for a WC squad place, he is a talent.

 

[wobbly]

Was it Mitchell or Du Plessis in 14? Ground announcer said Du Plessis a number of times but looking at player photos on Rebels website it might have been Mitchell. Whoever it was they looked completely out of their depth.

It thought Mortlocks positional play and defense was great, he just looked slow as the game went on. I recall Stirlo coming up off his line quickly and pulling off a few of the biggest hits off the match. Fruen only ran into space on counter attack in the last quarter.

 

[slasher]

anything new shown by macqueen yet?? bloody keen on seeing what inovations he brings back to the game

 

[Dumbledore]

Was it Mitchell or Du Plessis in 14? Ground announcer said Du Plessis a number of times but looking at player photos on Rebels website it might have been Mitchell. Whoever it was they looked completely out of their depth.

It thought Mortlocks positional play and defense was great, he just looked slow as the game went on. I recall Stirlo coming up off his line quickly and pulling off a few of the biggest hits off the match. Fruen only ran into space on counter attack in the last quarter.

It was Mitchell and he was absolutely godawful. Guildford made him his personal play-thing. Stirlo was good on attack, worryingly slow when he got turned in defence though. He seemed fine when he got going, just very slow off the mark. Hard to know if that's just because he's still coming back from injury though.

 

[Lee Grant]

Welcome aboard Dumbledore.

That's bad news about Mitchell. I had rated him playing 13 overseas and wing a few times for Sydney Uni. Pity.

 

[Dumbledore]

Cheers Lee, good to be here.

Yeah, I'd been hearing good things about him, really didn't deliver though. Just looked out of his depth, as Stu mentioned above, he kept rushing up in defence and left his wing completely exposed. The Crusaders just kept taking play down his wing then pushing grubbers in behind him - happened about five or six times. Betham came on for him at about 60 minutes (from memory) and looked much better. Thought Kingi was better than Phipps as well, he plays quite a similar game to Genia, snipes really nicely around the ruck.

 

[wobbly]

Kingis passing was like an aging Gregan. He always took an extra step. Phipps passing wasn't accurate and Hilgendorfs hands were amazing, but at least he cleared the ball quickly. I didn't think he was too bad. I was disappointed by Kingi.

 

[Wallaby Way]

It will be interesting to see the battle in the outside backs and who ends up getting picked. I have to agree that Mitchell wasn't up to it last Saturday, nor Du Plessis who made a number of rookie errors. Zippa wasn't much better...

Based on the Crusaders game, I'm expecting a back three of Hux, Betham and Rooney; with Zippa on the bench.