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Blues batter the Rebels in Super Rugby shocker

Rieko Ioane evades Matt Toomua (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

Melbourne have failed to stop the New Zealand rout of Australian sides, crashing to the Blues in their opening round Super Rugby Trans-Tasman clash.

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Despite a new coach at the helm, with assistant Kevin Foote stepping up after Dave Wessels’ departure, it was more of the same from the Rebels, who missed the Super Rugby AU playoffs after finishing fourth.

Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete’s try-scoring drought continued with Melbourne failing to get across the line at AAMI Park as the Blues posted a thumping 50-3 victory.

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Blues No.8 Hoskins Sotutu scored two early second-half tries to effectively put the game out of the Rebels’ reach by the 56th minute.

The match then opened up, with the Blues running rampant to finish with six tries, with replacement back Akira Ioane also finishing with a double

Loosehead prop Karl Tu’inukuafe terrorised his opposite Cabous Eloff and the Rebels pack in the opening stanza, earning four scrum penalties.

Dominating possession and territory, the visitors also forced errors in the Melbourne attack through their lightning line-speed.

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Each side were unlucky not to score through the first half with an early effort by Bryce Heem called back for a Rieko Ioane knock-on.

Melbourne then missed a deserved penalty try when hooker Jordan Uelese’s would-be score was illegally thwarted by Adrian Choat, who was yellow-carded.

The Blues took their chances and skipper Tom Robinson was ready and waiting for a long floating pass from five-eighth Otere Black to score right on halftime for a 17-3 lead.

Any hopes of a home side fightback was snuffed out by Sototu’s early second-half efforts as the Blues iced an impressive display across the park.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

Players like Prendergast and Finn Smith already have a few seasons at top club level under their belt and are now test players, at an age when NZ players make their debuts in SR.

That’s just a difference in standards. You’re confusing SR for being their local domestic comps, where it’s more accurately comparable to Champions Cup, apart from that teams are happy to throw games as it’s in a bit of a limbo in terms of importance atm.


All these kids have been playing for a comparable NPC team for years now. Sam is no where near ready for tests but he has a great temperament, much like Sextons, that makes it a good choice to speed up his development. He wasn’t even a comparable Super Rugby starter before playing for Ireland, so not a great comparison.


Fin would be much better example, but then England don’t have 3 world class Test tens in front of him (not that I’d put Beauden their but obviously in terms of young NZ players chances, he is). Would he otherwise have debuted at the same age as Fergus Burke (injury and leaving withstanding), around 24, a couple of years later? England also aren’t as pedantic to who they give jerseys to, in NZ a test jersey is very hard earned for the most part.


In general I think the effects are as you say, but the only difference is the money involved, as you yourself said, their paths are just as all over the show being loaned out playing for clubs etc. My solution to that, and what you perceive as the problem, would be to introduce university football that utilitizes the large investment they have into high performance sport.

88 Go to comments
J
Jennifer Ross 3 hours ago
One rule for Europe's copycats, another for the Springboks

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Regards.

28 Go to comments
J
Jennifer Ross 3 hours ago
One rule for Europe's copycats, another for the Springboks

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28 Go to comments
J
JW 4 hours ago
Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

JJ and DMac shows how little attention you actually pay to the substance of the articles.

What do you mean by that? For lack of an answer from you I’d suggest yuo need to look at the game again and then read your article. Because although I’m not going to again but I did quickly review the videos and they all match correctly with my perception.

JTPL is shifting towards overseas players being JQP in future

No they’re not, thats a flatout lie Nick. You can find an article on here with their CEO where they want more out of their deals but it’s standard professional sports fair, nothing underhand like the NH does. I find that quite foul that you would share such a view.


I suppose the new World Club League thats starting would die for the best ABs even for just a year, and probably set them up even better. Mo’unga hadn’t done enough to earn a sabbatical though. This is where NZR needs to start questioning itself. You can’t blame the player if the NZR are not even interesting in offering you a contract. In situations where say NZR aren’t able to reach 70% of the offer I think a great starting point would be for them to be treated differently than someone who just left for money. NZR could say make that player immediately eligible if NZR decide to make a fair offer and they sign to return, with players putting in their overseas contracts a right to leave early if they resign back with NZR.


Even with Japans fading desire for sabbaticals I still think NZ can make it a good destination and have many reciprocal agreements with JRFU and the JRLO teams. The situation still very much favours NZ and Australia but it’s upto them to make the most of it or the JRFU won’t see any reason to be the ones always giving the favours.

88 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Where is the new breed of All Black 10? Where is the new breed of All Black 10?
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