After a performance injured skipper Stirling Mortlock described as tough watching, the Melbourne Rebels hope another week together on the training paddock yields a better performance in their second Super Rugby trial.
The Rebels will host the Blues at AAMI Park on Saturday night after being trounced 36-0 by the Chiefs in Geelong on Friday.
Star signing James O’Connor had only had two weeks training with his new outfit and fellow Wallaby Kurtley Beale a week longer and the lack of combinations across the Rebels backline was fully exposed.
The forwards were also outplayed by the Chiefs, who were missing both their captains Liam Messam, who injured himself in the warm-up, and Craig Clarke.
All Black Sonny Bill Williams also didn’t play because of his upcoming heavyweight title fight.
Skipper Mortlock missed the match because of an injured knee but tweeted a running commentary from the sidelines, at one stage declaring “I feel like not tweeting updates!”
Damien Hill, who has replaced Rod Macqueen as head coach, was disappointed but said the team, which finished with the wooden spoon in their debut season, would take a lot out of the match.
With the Chiefs using their maul to cross the tryline twice, and line-out turnovers proving costly, Hill said they were two areas they needed to work on.
“New combinations and trust is sometimes an issue,” he said.
“You can’t really overcome that other than playing together.
“It will be interesting to see how the boys bounce back.”
Hill was happy with the scrum, in its first outing since the retirement of All Blacks veteran Greg Somerville, and the showing of his Test duo O’Connor, who played at 10 and 12, and fullback Beale, who made a couple of classy breaks.
“I imagine they were quite frustrated but when they did get some space, they did look dangerous,” Hill said.
“They didn’t get that opportunity too many times.”
O’Connor wasn’t bothered by the scoreline: “A trial’s a trial,” he said.
“It was a bit ill-disciplined and we gave them some easy points but I was pretty happy.”
