Thomson hat-trick ends the Rebellion
The Melbourne Rebels were unable to secure consecutive wins as the Highlanders steam-rolled over them with a 43-12 hammering highlighted by an Adam Thomson hat-trick in Invercargill on Friday.
After some excellent defensive work by the Rebels in the first half, the Melbourne side were simply unable to stop the Highlanders relentless attack after half-time.
Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph must have flicked a switch in the change room during the break, because the Highlanders team that came out for the second half was on fire and had a bewildered looking Rebels side in disarray.
The Highlanders' strength is their ability to protect the ball at the breakdown and recycle phases after phases to pile the pressure on opposition defences, and the Rebels had no answers for that in the final 40 minutes.
The first opportunity fell to the Rebels as Kurtley Beale put Jarrod Saffy into space, but as the Melbourne side got within striking distance lock Hugh Pyle knocked on from 5m out.
Nevertheless the Rebels were the first side on the board through a couple of well struck penalties from James O'Connor, while Highlanders flyhalf Chris Noakes missed his first two kicks at goal at the other end of the park.
There was a set-back for the Rebels after 22 minutes, when inside centre Lloyd Johansson was shown a yellow card for a tip-tackle on James Haskell following a report from one of the referee's assistants.
With Johansson about to come back onto the field the Highlanders launched a counter-attack after Beale failed to find touch with a clearing kick. The ball went out wide and a neat pass from Tamati Ellison put Kade Poki into space on the outside. Poki popped an inside ball to Ben Smith and the fullback stepped round Beale and threw Nick Phipps to the ground with a savage hand-off to score the try.
O'Connor continued to rack up the points for the Rebels off the kicking-tee, and his accuracy with the boot was keeping the Melbourne side in the game.
With time almost up for half-time the Highlanders attacked out wide through a darting run by Kade Poki, but as the Highlanders looked for the try they ball was forced into touch by some staunch Rebels defensive work. Referee Marius Jonker called the play back to 10m out and in front of the posts for an earlier dangerous tackle by the Rebels. Aaron Smith took a quick tap and Hosea Gear collected the ball in midfield before spotting space out wide and sending a long pass out to Adam Thomson, who cruised round Cooper Vuna to score the try. Noakes' conversion attempt went wide off the post and it was 12-all at the break.
The Highlanders came back out of the tunnel with some serious intent and struck almost immediately, with Thomson adding his second try in the corner following a great build-up from the forwards.
Poki collected a loose kick downfield and went off on one of his slippery runs and cut the Rebels defence to shreds to score the bonus point try for his team early in the second half. 24-12.
Wave after wave of Highlanders attack stretched the Rebels' defence until from short range the skipper Jamie Mackintosh forced his way over the line for a try to reward all his hard work.
The floodgates were well and truly open after the Highlanders attacked once again from a line-out just outside the Rebels' 22m. Mark Gerrard shot out of the defensive line to put pressure on Noakes, but the flyhalf 's quick hands flipped the ball out to Ben Smith for the fullbacks to slice through the hole and add yet another try for the rampant home side.
Thomson completed his hat-trick with ten minutes still on the clock by barging over with some help from his forwards from close range after the Rebels ran out of defenders.
Man of the match: There were two contenders, as Highlanders fullback Ben Smith scored a brace of fantastic tries and hand a hand an a few others, but the star of the show was hat-trick hero Adam Thomson who was everywhere and makes such a difference to the Highlanders team.
Scorers:
For Highlanders:
Tries: B.Smith 2, Thomson 3, Poki, Mackintosh
Cons: Noakes 4
Yellow card: Doug Tietjens (Breakdown infringements - 77 minutes)
For Rebels:
Pens: O'Connor 4
Yellow card: Lloyd Johansson (tip-tackle - 22 minutes)
Teams:
Highlanders: 15 Ben Smith, 14 Kade Poki, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Shaun Treeby, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Chris Noakes, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Nasi Manu, 7 James Haskell, 6 Adam Thomson, 5 Jarrad Hoeata, 4 Josh Bekhuis, 3 Chris King, 2 Jason Rutledge, 1 Jamie Mackintosh (captain).
Replacements: 16 Brayden Mitchell, 17 Ma'afu Fia, 18 Culum Retallick, 19 Doug Tietjens, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Phil Burleigh, 22 Buxton Popoali'i.
Melbourne Rebels: 15 Kurtley Beale, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Lachlan Mitchell, 12 Lloyd Johansson, 11 Cooper Vuna, 10 James O'Connor, 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 Michael Lipman, 20 Nic Stirzaker, 21 James Hilgendorf, 22 Julian Huxley.
Referee: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Vinny Munro (New Zealand), Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
TMO: Kane McBride (New Zealand)
By Timmy Hancox