Melbourne Rising V Perth Spirit, 11 September @ AAMI

[KevinO]

I have to say I like what I see from Sexton at the set piece, not as good around the park but his scrum and line out work so far has been really impressive.

Back line for the Rebels next year is hard to choose, everyone playing well in the NRC with Ellison, Kingston, Shipperly, Crawford and Hegarty to come in.

 

[Hawko]

Some of the Under 20s players are worth a look: 12 Burton and 14 Lacey. Burton has already played Super Rugby but is not well-known. Reserve hooker Scoble has promise too.

Lacey would be my pick of the Under 20s - he's a rangy lad who has rugby smarts.

The fellow that surprised me though was 10. Leyds the week before last; he was terrific, but was less noticeable at fullback in the last game.

He looks handy in the 10 jersey.
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On tonight's game Lacey has a lot of work to do on his defence. He was good on attack but Veainu had a field day running past him.

 

[Lee Grant]

^^^^
He had a few problems didn't he? But he will come good: he's too good a youngster not to. This NRC is just what the 20-year-old needs.

I must admit I hadn't thought much of Veainu in the past, either in NZ or playing over here, but that may have been more the fault of my assessment than his playing.

Maybe he seemed to be a star tonight because of the inexperience of many of his opponents, but if he has a few more of those displays it could be that he is ready to step up in Super Rugby next year.

I hope so for the Rebels' sake; it has been good watching many of their players in the Rising dishing it out to teams from around the country.

This could be a flash in the pan or it could be the start of a long pre-season for the 2015 Rebels and a lot will carry forward to that.

Most true Aussie rugby fans will hope so.
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[RugbyReg]

It's great to see them playing so well but I wonder how much is hedger related and how much they will miss him next year.

 

[Shiggins]

The rebels 3rd try. How dies that work when the is simultaneous grounding if the ball.

 

[Shiggins]

3 rebels players all off their feet at the breakdown and win a penalty? Last play of the 1st half. Referees need to start looking at this as it's becoming a problem in the game again. Who was the ref ? He made a few wrong calls ( I didn't know rucking was legal again) and the yellow for lifting was against the wrong player haha. got in the way a couple of times but did pretty well. Are we using club referees?

 

[Shiggins]

Lacey deserved that try. Absolute brilliant kick chase.

 

[Tex]

3 rebels players all off their feet at the breakdown and win a penalty? Last play of the 1st half. Referees need to start looking at this as it's becoming a problem in the game again. Who was the ref ? He made a few wrong calls ( I didn't know rucking was legal again) and the yellow for lifting was against the wrong player haha. got in the way a couple of times but did pretty well. Are we using club referees?

Yeah a couple of wrong calls. The 12 who tipped McMahon slunk off quietly!

 

[Shiggins]

The no3 for melbourne was very cynical multiple times. Real negative. Lucky to not be penalised more and carded

 

[Shiggins]

Yeah a couple of wrong calls. The 12 who tipped McMahon slunk off quietly!

The obstruction call from the touchy in the last 10 min was absolute shit.

 

[Shiggins]

Holmes and and stander were our best. It was a pretty good effort against what was pretty much the Melbourne rebels.
What shits me off is that we had to give some of our s15 player to other sides because we had to many????? Didn't see many out there last night. Saying that it's great for The Perth boys to go up
Against all those s15 players

 

[Brumby Runner]

It's great to see them playing so well but I wonder how much is hedger related and how much they will miss him next year.

I think a lot of the credit must go to the coach in relation to the way the Rising are playing. They are playing really good, direct rugby in both forwards and backs. Backs are continually running straight, challenging the defensive line and getting passes or offloads away to supports. Forwards doing the tough stuff and not getting in the way of the attack but if they find themselves in the backline, they also keep the ball moving. A lot to like about the way the way play.

 

[swingpass]

great nights entertainment again. despite the Rising playing far too loosely at times, the direct running and offloading game (a la Rebels 2013) is paying dividends. not certain it is Hedger or just the ability to do it against a lesser opposition. the scrum dominance and generally consistent lineout of course helps with a steady flow of front foot ball.

for me, i thought neville, PAE, inman, leafa, jones, veainu and mcmahon were the Rising's best, the local players however don't look out of place when they come on.

the spirit played with a great deal of determination and i thought defended really well, especially when they were a man down and under the pump. stander, burton and holmes were their best imo.

i think the referee was out of his depth. but they have to start somewhere.

2000 on a cold thursday night in melbourne was a fair crowd, personally i prefer a sunny sunday arvo, but will front up again on the 25th

 

[Mr Wobbly]

I have to say I like what I see from Sexton at the set piece, not as good around the park but his scrum and line out work so far has been really impressive.

Back line for the Rebels next year is hard to choose, everyone playing well in the NRC with Ellison, Kingston, Shipperly, Crawford, Hegarty and Aussie Mike Harris to come in.

Must be a bit of a concern about Shipperly though and Crawford hasn't really dominated in the NRC games he's played so far.

 

[Mr Wobbly]

3 rebels players all off their feet at the breakdown and win a penalty? Last play of the 1st half. Referees need to start looking at this as it's becoming a problem in the game again. Who was the ref ? He made a few wrong calls ( I didn't know rucking was legal again) and the yellow for lifting was against the wrong player haha. got in the way a couple of times but did pretty well. Are we using club referees?

I dunno who the ref was but I thought he did OK, certainly no worse that some of the refs during the Super season. Obviously the NRC is also a development tool for refs. This is a good thing I reckon. One of the ARs was Angus Gardiner so it looks as though an experienced ref is being used as a mentor for the less experienced.

One thing that I thought was a good innovation last night, at some of the stoppages the ref's mike was broadcast over the PA. Unfortunately there were no Steve Walsh style gems, not that I heard anyway.

 

[Dumbledore]

The rebels 3rd try. How dies that work when the is simultaneous grounding if the ball.

It wasn't simultaneous?

As for the continuing misconception that the Rising team is basically the Melbourne Rebels... Only Smith, Jones and Inman were regular starters - and Jones is playing in a different position. Neville started some games in the second half of the year once Pyle announced he was leaving but he was hardly first choice material.

All we're seeing is that fringe professional players are mostly better than really, really, good amateurs - which is more than likely why they got picked up in the first place. The fitness seems to make a huge difference. Perth came out and was on top in the first five-ten minutes of each half, but then Melbourne just put the foot down and was able to control things. Having guys like Jones and McMahon who have enormous motors helps things hugely.

 

[Dumbledore]

As for the referee, I thought he was fine for the most part. Could have gone for his cards quicker after some cynical stuff for both teams, but he let them play and did his best to open the game up. Things were played at a seriously quick pace and he did well to facilitate that.

 

[Ash]

The rebels 3rd try. How dies that work when the is simultaneous grounding if the ball.

My understanding/memory is that a simultaneous grounding is a try.

Not so sure that was a simultaneous ground, but either way I think it's a try.

 

[Highlander35]

Looks like a duck, smells like a duck, sounds like a duck, it's probably a duck.

 

[Shiggins]

It wasn't simultaneous?

As for the continuing misconception that the Rising team is basically the Melbourne Rebels. Only Smith, Jones and Inman were regular starters - and Jones is playing in a different position. Neville started some games in the second half of the year once Pyle announced he was leaving but he was hardly first choice material.

All we're seeing is that fringe professional players are mostly better than really, really, good amateurs - which is more than likely why they got picked up in the first place. The fitness seems to make a huge difference. Perth came out and was on top in the first five-ten minutes of each half, but then Melbourne just put the foot down and was able to control things. Having guys like Jones and McMahon who have enormous motors helps things hugely.

I counted 11 rebels players that are usually in the 22.