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'Super Rugby is a place for men': Rebels issue stern warning on eve of Super Rugby

(Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

“Super Rugby is a place for men, it’s not a place for boys.”

That was the ominous warning from Melbourne Rebels coach Dave Wessels on the eve of the Super Rugby season as his three Australian rivals prepare to experiment with young flyhalves.

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A trio of 20-year-olds will start at No.10 in round one for the NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds and ACT Brumbies, while 52-test veteran Matt Toomua will steer the Rebels.

Continue reading below…

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It means every team has a different flyhalf to round one last season and Australia’s changing of the playmaking guard comes as a new World Cup cycle begins.

Fijian international halfback Frank Lomani and Toomua will replace former Wallabies halves pair Will Genia and Quade Cooper when the Rebels face the Sunwolves in their opener on Saturday.

Captain Dane Haylett-Petty says his club did the best job of retaining talent post World Cup and wants to capitalise on it after narrowly missing finals the past two seasons.

“We’re pretty excited about the direction we’re heading in, the club has done a really good job retaining our group so we can build off the back of last year,” he said.

“We’ve also recruited really well, we’ve got Matt Toomua who’s an international flyhalf, we’ve got Frank Lomani who is an international scrumhalf.

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“Quade and Will would have been a big hole to fill but we’re expecting these boys to really step up.

“We’re not expecting to be perfect round one but we’re expecting to grow and improve throughout the season.”

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Fullback Haylett-Petty admitted he was still growing into the captaincy after taking over last season but Wessels said he had great support around him.

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“Dane is really enjoying having the experience and intellectual capital that is around him at the moment in the backs,” Wessels said.

“They’re really engaged and sharing a lot of great ideas and you can just see the learning of the group is going through the roof.

“That’s the beauty of having some more experienced players, particularly in your key driving positions.

“Super Rugby is a place for men, it’s not a place for boys. And Matt (Toomua) is certainly a man.”

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Flankly 1 hour 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?

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