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Brumbies consign Rebels to ninth-straight defeat despite triple sin-binning

Tom Wright. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Winger Tom Wright collected a double among the Brumbies’ haul of six as they continued the Super Rugby Pacific misery for Melbourne with a thumping 36-17 victory at AAMI Park.

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The Brumbies had four tries before the Rebels scored their first on Friday night to continue their unbeaten start from four games.

Melbourne remain winless – the loss their ninth in succession dating back to last season – in an alarming form slump.

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Is this the best uncapped player in New Zealand?

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Is this the best uncapped player in New Zealand?

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar said he couldn’t complain about the six tries to two victory, nor their early ladder position.

“We don’t want to be at the peak of our game at the moment but what I’m liking is that we’re learning and building and getting better every week,” he said.

“We knew they’d bring plenty of intent and I was really pleased with how we defended.

“It was 15 minutes until we touched the ball and then we put a couple of tries together and I was pleased with how we defended our goal line.”

Newly re-signed Wallabies winger Andrew Kellaway, who had an off-season foot injury, made his first Rebels appearance but he was given few opportunities in their disjointed attack.

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They had plenty of ball and territory early in the first half but too often were let down by poor execution.

The Brumbies, meanwhile, made the most of their chances with burly flanker Rob Valetini beating two men and dragging another two across the line for his third try of the season.

The score was 12-0 after 26 minutes when centre Len Ikitau benefited from some good lead-up work by Jesse Mogg and Tom Banks, and flimsy Rebels defence.

The home side wasn’t helped when they lost Glen Vaihu to a yellow card after the young winger took out the legs of a leaping Banks.

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While he was off Wright scored the first of his two tries, coming off a floating Nic White pass with the Brumbies taking a 17-3 lead into halftime.

That blew out by another five points at the 42-minute mark after Banks made a long-range break and then kicked ahead with the ball bouncing away from Matt To’omua, with Wright pouncing on his second.

Flanker Jahrome Brown was another to find easy passage to the line.

The Rebels delivered their best try of the season in the 62nd minute, with fleet-footed centre Ray Nu’u sparking the attack before reserve flanker Richard Hardwick found the tryline.

But the Brumbies had the last say, with in-form Banks collecting a perfectly timed pass from James Slipper and charging ahead to score their sixth of the night.

Melbourne coach Kevin Foote said he felt his team started well, although didn’t get the pay they required for their efforts.

“Our attack is coming but our defence upset me a little bit – our first-time tackles aren’t sticking and guys are scoring too easily,” Foote said.

“There’s some definite signs of improvement and some senior guys came back this week which helped with our confidence in difficult times.”

– Melissa Woods

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J
JW 12 hours ago
The Fergus Burke test and rugby's free market

I can guarantee that none of the three would have got a chance with Ireland in the state they arrived from NZ.

Why would you think they would?

Two of them were at Leinster and were bench-warmers when they arrived

Sometimes you can be beyond stupid JW.

Haha look who's talking! Hello? Can you just read what you wrote about Leinster to yourself again please lol

It took prob four seasons to get James Lowe's defence up to the required standard to play international footy. If Jacob Stockdale had not experienced a big slump in form he might not have gotten the chance at all.

I'm really not sure why you're making this point. Do you think Ireland are a better team than the All Blacks, where those players would have been straight in? This is like ground hog day the movie with you. Can you not remember much of the discussions, having so many readers/commentors? Yup, 26/7/8 would have been the perfect age for them to have been capped by NZ as well.


Actually, they would obviously have been capped given an opportunity earlier (where they were ineligible to for Ireland).


TTT, who was behind JGP at the Hurricanes, got three AB caps after a couple of further seasons acting as a backup SR player, once JGP left of course. In case you didn't see yourself contradicting your own comments above, JGP was just another player who became first choice for Ireland while 2nd (or even 3rd/outside the 23 in recent cases) for Leinster. And fair enough, no one is suggesting JGP would have surpassed TJP in three or four years either. He would have been an All Black though, and unlike in your Leinster example, similar performances from him would have seen TJP move on earlier to make way for him. Not limited him like he was in Ireland. That's just the advantage of the way they can only afford so many. Hell, one hit wonders like Seta Tamanivalu and Malakai Fekitoa got rocketed into the jersey at the time.


So not just him. Aki and Lowe both would have had opportunities, as you must know has been pointed out by now. It's true that the adversity of having to move to Ireland added a nice bit of mongrel to their game though, along with their typical development.


Aki looked comfortable as the main 12 in his first two seasons, he was fortunate SBW went back to league for a season you could say, but as a similar specialist he ultimate had to give the spot back again on his return. There's certainly no doubt he would have returned and flourished with coachs like Rennie, Wayne Smith, and Andrew Strawbridge, even Tom Coventry. All fair for him to take up an immediate contract instead of wait a year of course though.


It's just whatever the point of your comments are meant to make, your idea that these players wouldn't have achieved high honors in NZ is simply very shortsighted and simplistic. I can only think you are making incorrect conclusions about this topic because of this mistake. As a fan, Aki was looking to be the Nonu replacement for me, but instead the country had the likes of Laumape trying to fill those boots with him available. Ditto with Lowe once Rieko moved to center.

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