For the first few minutes of the Rebels–Hurricanes game on Friday night, I thought the Rebels were looking quite good: more composed than in past weeks, holding onto the ball, cleaning out well, scrumming strongly. I could overlook the first Hurricanes try because it just seemed like a double dose of bad luck for the Rebels (almost a triple dose, if you count the convenient placement of the Hurricanes players).
However, by the 13th minute when Vito crossed I was starting to think more about the bar. I quickly moved on to resenting the ref (although apart from the scrum free kick, which I still have no idea what the Canes did to earn, he was largely on the money). At the 18th minute, when the scoring was going at about a point a minute and all one way, with the Hurricanes off-loading and breaking first tackles like it was a game of touch, I was wondering if I would leave early this time…. Little could I imagine that 30 minutes of play later, when my two-and-a-half year-old accounted for two full beers in one fell kick, I wouldn’t even care.
I still don’t know exactly what happened. From watching the replay, I actually think that what happened was that the Rebels didn’t panic, had shaken the early dropped balls out of the system and just kept banging out the game plan, while the Canes dropped a couple balls, conceded a couple of penalties and then got rattled. Critically, perhaps, the Rebels spread their defence enough to fill the Lachlan Mitchell-sized hole at 13.
The Canes got rattled because two penalties let Rodzilla drive over, and as Mortlock started getting easy metres in the tackle you could immediately see the Rebels take the upper hand. The forwards in particular really lifted a notch — if there could have been any doubt about it, Ged Robinson’s chip-through for the line-out, from which Campbell drove over, really showed the Rebels’ forward flair! More importantly, the sustained solid maul that set the try up showed their superior discipline and commitment in tight play — something that became a defining feature of the rest of the game. I should mention here that it was highly appropriate that it was Somerville who shunted Rodzilla over for the first try: he really got through a power of work as the night went on.
The Rebels’ next try came when Cipriani put in a clever cross-field kick, which Vuna batted back and in; Mitchell gathered the ball and made good yards, then the support was there in numbers and the ball went out to a stationary Mortlock who had the vision and sense to flick it straight on to the charging Lipman, who just kept charging. The score was now almost level, but the mood around the ground was anything but level with the (numerous) Canes supporters holding heads in hands as they realised that their team simply hadn’t had the commitment left in them to make two tough tackles.
Ged Robinson popped up again on the 40th minute mark to earn a penalty, and amazingly the teams went to the sheds at 20-all.
As Rebels fans, we couldn’t wait for the second half to begin, and we were vindicated — the home team came out clearly dominant and basically stayed that way. The Canes had gone home at the 25th minute mark and simply couldn’t turn around. Rebels were first to the breakdowns and arrived in greater numbers, runners seemingly able to gain ground almost at will — whether it be Delve with a pick-and-drive, Saffy or Somerville or Robinson on the charge, Mortlock barging in the centre or Kingi or Vuna out wide.
The turnaround was almost complete when Vuna, who had missed an absolute shocker of a tackle early on, barrelled over to cap another great passage with the Rebels’ fifth try. It was storybook-complete when he set up Phipps’s try by going through and then around the same player he had missed so badly earlier, the impressive Julian Savea.
Of course, it wasn’t all one-way traffic, but one of the things I really appreciated in this performance was that even when the Canes did get down to the line the Rebels held them out — turning it over on the 22 (Mortlock) after a five-metre Canes line-out win was spun wide, and then building a rock-solid defensive maul (Delve, Lipman, Campbell, et al.) to hold it and settle themselves… that was my personal favourite.
The Canes did claw one back and got the bonus point that keeps them one clear of the Rebels in the overall standings, but they will be doing some real soul-searching in the days ahead because on the strength of a display like that, the Bulls will grind them six inches under the Napier turf. The Rebels, by contrast, can head to Perth with heads high: their debut season is already a success and with the likes of Gerrard in particular, and also Huxley, O’Neill and Freier still to return, they will surely notch up a couple more scalps this year.
When they keep calm and don’t get isolated, which is presumably going to happen less and less as they start to come together and think as a team, they have a really effective bunch of piggies, some classy backs and a solid game plan revolving around good use of territory, pressure on the opposition set-piece, and winning the breakdown. They committed a lot more bodies to a number of breakdowns than the Canes did, and it told, and they laughed off the threat of the Canes backs by kicking to them all night and letting them run it up if they dared (they didn’t, after a while). It isn’t rocket science, but having selected the cattle to do it after only a few matches together suggests the physics and chemistry are advanced.
Votes: Hell, the only Rebel who didn’t really come out golden was Mitchell, who just is not an outside centre, at least not yet. Even so, he made good metres ball-in-hand in broken play and will probably be back on the wing as soon as any other centre is fit. Kingi was very sharp overall and we will probably see more of him at fullback; Ged Robinson was excellent but so were Lipman, Delve, Saffy and so many forwards. I had always wanted Phipps to star, and he certainly shone.
To pick a top three: 1 – Ged Robinson; 2 – Phipps; 3 – Mortlock/Saffy/Somerville.
Yes, I’m carried away.
