Rebels suffer shock loss to Stormers ahead of NSW showdown
Melbourne Rebels will go into their biggest game of the season on the back of a thrashing from the Stormers on Friday night.
The Australian conference leaders put on their worst performance of the season going down 41-24 at AAMI Park against a daring Stormers side who sit at the bottom of their own conference and were missing several Springboks stars after they were sent home to rest.
The Rebels and Waratahs meet in Sydney next weekend and instead of flying north with a chance to all but lock in the Australian conference title, the Rebels will now be one more loss away from being right back in the pack.
Rebels coach Dave Wessels warned during the week that the Stormers still had plenty of talent despite their list of outs, but his side must not have listened as they went behind just four minutes after Stormers winger Dillyn Lleyds scored a try.
The Rebels never came back to hold the lead. Their defence was ordinary and their attack unable to create enough meaningful opportunities even with a glut of possession in the first half.
The Stormers made an incredible 163 tackles to just 44 from Melbourne as they absorbed the home side's attacks and then used their speed to crack their defence open.
Even the Rebels' first try came from a Stormers error after five-eighth Jean-Luc du Plessis’ thoughtless pass was intercepted by Reece Hodge for a try just after half time, tying the scores at 10-10.
But after that the Cape Town side turned AAMI Park to Newlands on the Yarra scoring four tries and having another disallowed for stepping out of bounds.
Young Rebels winger Semisi Tupou had the best chance to open the scoring on 30 minutes as Cooper’s inch perfect cross-field kick landed in his arms just as he crossed the try line, but he dropped the ball and the Stormers led 10-3 at the half.
The visitors lost No 8 Jaco Coetzee soon after as he went down with what looked like a serious knee injury, but his replacement Jaunro Augustus made an immediate impact finishing a lightning first move down his side’s left wing, making the score 17-10 on 48 minutes.
The raw speed of Lleyds was again on show just minutes later as he took a pass 30 metres from the line and stepped off his left foot breaking the line and dishing to centre Damian de Allande as they extended the lead to 24-10.
The Stormers extended their lead to 34-10 by the hour mark, although Will Genia’s try cut the scores to 34-17 on 68 minutes, Cooper's pass to Campbell Magnay setup another score four minutes from time.
One silver-lining for the Rebels will be they expect to have key players Jack Maddocks, Matt Philip and Anaru Rangi back in the side next week – all three were missed against the Stormers as their teammates failed to rise to the occasion.
The Rebels play the NSW Waratahs in Sydney on Easter Saturday at 7.45pm.