Melbourne Rebels show they are ready to be Super Rugby AU contenders despite early losses

Here are some numbers for you: 45 points scored over more than 165 minutes across two games, and not one try.

That’s how the tallies read for the Melbourne Rebels’ start to their Super Rugby AU campaign, in which they lost 23-21 to the Queensland Reds in Brisbane in round two, and 27-24 to the Brumbies in Canberra in the following round last weekend.

But here’s one more important point to consider: in consecutive weeks, the Rebels have come within one penalty attempt pulled to the left from skipper Matt Toomua against the Reds, and one Brumbies scrum half Ryan Lonergan penalty from so far out that he started his approach in the southern suburbs of Canberra, of beating both of last year’s finalists.

Toomua knows this is a point the Rebels need to latch onto and build upon.

“It’s really easy to lose sight of that, I think, but it’s a really good way of putting it,” he said on Saturday night.

“The fact is that we are two kicks away from winning the two hardest games in the competition on paper.”

The Rebels skipper could see the cruel irony of his side going down to the Brumbies by just a penalty kick after he was unable to do the same thing to the Reds himself the week before.

Rebels coach Dave Wessels took a slightly different view.

“I know the wins will come, but I probably feel a bit different to [Toomua],” Wessels said while sitting next to his captain.

“I think we can be tougher on each other than we have been. We dominated most parts of that game and we should have won, but we didn’t win and it’s not acceptable.

“We’ve got to figure out why and we’ve got to change it.”

The easy criticism of the Rebels in 2021 is that they’re not really trying to “play rugby” in the traditional sense of scoring tries and kicking conversions afterwards, instead preferring to kick for territory and pressure teams into conceding penalties that allow them to kick for goal.

Fifteen penalty goals from 18 attempts over two games tell you they’re pretty good at it, too. Toomua kicked all eight penalty attempts in Canberra on Saturday night.

And for the removal of all doubt, this is all still rugby. Kicking at goal is as important a skill as scrummaging well.

“I’ll take the points any way they come,” Wessels said.

“One of the ways you can score in this game is through penalties, so if that’s the way we’re going to get them, that’s the way we’ll get them. Sometimes we’ll score tries, that’s just how it is.”

Rebels a work in progress

What the Rebels have done is fashion a method that plays to their strengths, namely, Toomua’s excellent game management and the team’s good kicking in general play, and a highly skilled back row unit that pressures the attacking team at the ruck.

On Saturday night, the Rebels back row of Michael Wells, Richard Hardwick, and Josh Kemeny made 29 tackles between them, missed just two, and forced six turnovers from the Brumbies in attack.

Hardwick, in particular, looks to be regaining the kind of breakdown form that saw him win two Wallabies caps as a 23-year-old back in 2017.

He conceded just two penalties for the match against the Brumbies but unfortunately for the Rebels both came in the last minute of the game, allowing the Brumbies an easy exit out of their own 22 followed by Lonergan’s match-winning shot at goal.

In attack, the Rebels carried more often than the Brumbies did, and made more ground with the ball, but also kicked in general play more as well, highlighting their game plan of ensuring the ball spends most of its time down the other end of the field.

A look at the player stats underlines this point. Whereas the Brumbies kicked 28 times out of hand in general play, the vast majority of those were from full-back, with Tom Banks sending the ball out of the Brumbies defensive end 15 times himself.

Up in the front line, fly half Noah Lolesio kicked just five times for the game.

For the Rebels, fly half Toomua launched into 19 of their 27 kicks himself. He does the majority of their exit kicking, but the Rebels are also happy to kick from the front line and force teams right back into their half. And from there, they let their back row ruck specialists take over.

The Rebels are in Perth this weekend taking on the Western Force, and after that play four straight home games in Melbourne, something they’re very much looking forward to after fleeing Victoria on short notice a month ago.

Marika Koroibete is making his presence felt for the Rebels.(

AAP: Lukas Coch

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And their attack is building, too. They led the Brumbies in clean breaks for the match on Saturday night, 11 to three, and Marika Koroibete after just two matches now runs fourth in the whole Super Rugby AU competition for metres carried.

On the other wing, Lachie Anderson is an Australian sevens speedster, and full-back Tom Pincus is no slouch either.

“There’s plenty to like,” Toomua said.

“The key for us now is to take the positives and take the lessons, because momentum is a huge thing, whether it be in your favour or against you, and the last thing we want now is to start compounding errors.

“We’re not far away, and once we get back to our stadium and play in front of our fans, we’ll be hard to beat.”