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Upset loss not setting off alarm bells for Rebels

(Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)

Despite a frustrating season-opening defeat to long-time strugglers the Sunwolves, Melbourne Rebels are not panicking.

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After just missing out on a breakthrough finals appearance last year, the Rebels needed to open their 2020 campaign with a victory.

The trip to Japan is never a holiday, but most teams have been able to get the job done during the Sunwolves’ five seasons in the competition.

Not this time.

The Sunwolves racked up a win in the opening round for the first time with a deserved 36-27 success over Dave Wessels’ team.

Continue reading below…

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The Rebels were down by as much as 21 points in the second-half, but two late tries almost gave them a chance to pinch the win.

Captain Dane Haylett-Petty is backing the Rebels to turn it around quickly as the new-look team continues to gel.

They will have to with Australian derbies against the Brumbies in Canberra and NSW Waratahs at AAMI Park to come.

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“We’re disappointed with that. Plenty for us to work on and plenty of time left in the season so we’ll go away and work hard,” Haylett-Petty said.

“I think when we started building a bit of momentum (in the second half) they were able to slow our ball down and make some crucial tackles.

“(We need to work on) our defence, we leaked too many points there and the Sunwolves played with speed and we weren’t able to get set in time.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7-YzDaASC0/

Wallabies five-eighth Matt Toomua and Fijian international Frank Lomani started off their halves partnership after the departures of former Wallabies Will Genia and Quade Cooper during the off-season.

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With the Sunwolves bowing out of Super Rugby at the end of this season after being axed by administrators, they loom as a dangerous prospect for teams travelling to Japan.

– AAP

Catch up on all the highlights from this Round 4 Top League clash between Toyata Verblitz and Honda Heat:

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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?

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