Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Super Rugby final may be too expensive for Rebels to host

Disappointment for the Rebels as they rue another loss against South African opposition. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

The Melbourne Rebels may reportedly be unable to afford to host a Super Rugby home final if they top the Australian conference.

ADVERTISEMENT

The currently sit a single point behind the Brumbies in fifth place with five games of the regular season left to play.

If they finish atop the table and earn a home final, the Australian reports, the Rebels will have to pay the visiting side about $75,000.

But chief executive Baden Stephenson denies the club are on the brink of insolvency, despite the recent departure of their chief financial officer.

“There is no doubt that things are becoming increasingly fairly tight, but I’m extremely lucky that I have an extremely supportive and proactive board,” he told The Australian.

“We had our monthly meeting yesterday (Wednesday) and we have some plans in place and we are working away. We are confident of what we have in the short term. The longer-term, post-2021, no one can crystal ball that.”

Melbourne play the Waratahs, whose finals hopes are hanging by a thread, on Friday night with NSW star Kurtley Beale challenging Rebels skipper Dane Haylett-Petty, both expected to audition for the Wallabies’ fullback jersey recently vacated by Israel Folau.

ADVERTISEMENT

– AAP

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING 'World-class finisher' offers All Blacks selection solution Mark Tele'a scores a double at Allianz Stadium
Search