Rebels end their losing streak

The Melbourne Rebels finally ended their long 12 match Super Rugby losing streak with a nail-biting 30-29 victory over the Western Force at AAMI Park on Friday.

The match swayed to and fro from start to finished and was a much better spectacle than many would have anticipated from these two relatively new Australian sides.

The Rebels got off to a flyer and blitzed the Force in the first 20 minutes to fight their way to 21-0 lead.

However, the breathing distance was fairly short lived as the Force battled their way back into the match with four tries to take a narrow lead with 15 minutes to play.

The Rebels edged their noses in front with just eight minutes left on the clock through a Mark Gerrard penalty and kept their nerve to hold on for the win.

The home team were in some trouble just before kick-off, losing both James O'Connor and Richard Kingi to hamstring strains, with Lloyd Johansson and Julian Huxley called in as late replacements. However, that didn't stop them from a fantastic start to the match, largely orchestrated by flyhalf Danny Cipriani.

The Rebels had the first real chance of the match to open scoring after a break in midfield by Jarrod Saffy and a run down the touchline by Cooper Vuna was only stopped by some quick defensive work by Force fullback David Harvey.

However, the Rebels launched a second attack immediately and a great pass from Cipriani put Lachlan Mitchell into space to crash his way over the line for the opening try.

The Rebels continues to run everything at the Force to stretch their defensive line and carried the ball through several phases sucking in tacklers. Finally Cipriani sent a another long ball out to Lloyd Johansson, who from 10m out - dummied and slide through a hole score the second try. 14-0.

The Force then had a golden opportunity to score with an overlap, but with the tryline begging the ball came out to slowly and was turned over by Gareth Delve. The Rebels then flung the ball wide and Mark Gerrard charged down the sideline, faked a kick and stepped inside past the cover defence. Gerrad slipped a pass to Cipriani, who went over for the try untouched, but holding his hamstring.

That put an end to Cipriani's time on the pitch, and the force immediately cashed in while the Rebels looked to re-shuffle with James Hilgendorf at pivot.

The Force set-up a rolling maul from an attacking line-out, and the ball was ripped away, but then bounced awkwardly off the boot of one of the Rebels allowing David Pocock to scoop it up and dive over for a bizarre try.

The Force's comeback continued five minutes later when they crept up to the Rebels line and then a long pass from Brett Sheehan set-up a mismatch with Force backs being marked by Laurie Weeks, so Winston Stanley stepped inside the big man to score a try.

At the start of the second half, and almost from nothing Force wing Alfie Mafi cut back on an angled run and split the Rebels defence to slide in for the try. David Harvey added the conversion and the gap was reduced to 24-19.

The two fullbacks Harvey and Huxley traded penalties as both sides continued to play attacking rugby with the chance to steal a rare victory.

The Force then opened the match as Nick Cummins came in on a strong run off the back of a scrum and brushed off weak tackled from the Rebels to score the bonus-point fourth try and take the lead. 27-29.

With eight minutes still on the clock Pocock was penalised for hands in the ruck and Mark Gerrard stepped up to land the kick at goal from about 45m on the angle.

It was almost déjà vu for the Rebels defending a narrow lead at the end of the match, but they weren't letting this one slip through their fingers and were able to keep the Force honest in the dying minutes.

Man of the match: David Pocock was a man mountain for the Force as usual, and worked tirelessly at the breakdown, while Danny Cipriani showed what all the hype was about when he burst onto the rugby scene in England. Cipriani played a big part in all three of the Rebels tries, and it is no surprise that they couldn't cross the line again after he went off. However, our vote goes to Mark Gerrard, who set-up Cipriani's try with his cunning play down the touchline, fielded high balls, made tackles and landed the all important penalty when the pressure was on.

Scorers:

For Rebels:
Tries: Mitchell, Johansson, Cipriani
Cons: Cipriani 3
Pens: Huxley 2, Gerrard

For Force:
Tries: Pocock, Stanley, Mafi, Cummins
Cons: Harvey 3
Pen: Harvey

Teams:

Rebels: 15 Julian Huxley, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Lachlan Mitchell, 12 Lloyd Johansson, 11 Cooper Vuna, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Gareth Delve (captain), 7 Tom Chamberlain, 6 Jarrod Saffy, 5 Hugh Pyle, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Laurie Weeks, 2 Adam Freier, 1 Nic Henderson.
Replacements: 16 Ged Robinson, 17 Rodney Blake, 18 Alister Campbell, 19 Tim Davidson, 20 Michael Lipman, 21 James Hilgendorf, 22 Nick Stirzaker.

Western Force: 15 David Harvey, 14 Nick Cummins, 13 Will Tupou, 12 Winston Stanley, 11 Alfie Mafi, 10 James Stannard, 9 Brett Sheehan, 8 Matt Hodgson, 7 David Pocock (captain), 6 Angus Cottrell, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Sam Wykes, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Kieran Longbottom.
Replacements: 16 Ben Whittaker, 17 Pek Cowan, 18 Toby Lynn, 19 Richard Brown, 20 Justin Turner, 21 Rory Sidey, 22 Samu Wara.

Referee: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Andrew Lees (Australia)
TMO: Matt Goddard (Australia)

By Timmy Hancox