Match Centre: Rebels 33-14 Waratahs

Rebels 33-14 Waratahs, AAMI Park
Scorecard

Matt Toomua contributed with 18 points as Melbourne Rebels registered a 33-14 win over Waratahs in the latest round of Super Rugby AU at AAMI Park on Friday.

This is Rebels' second win from four games as they move to third place in the table while Waratahs are languishing at the bottom of the table after losing their fourth match.

An early infringement from Waratahs saw Rebels open their account with a 6th minute penalty goal. The home side further extended their lead as Tom Pincus, Reece Hodge and Stacey Ili all contributed in setting up Lachie Anderson over the line in the 13th minute.

Toomua, who kicked the conversion also slotted two more penalties in the 26th and 34th minutes to extend the scoreline to 16-0 and as the break was approaching the Australian international as he sold a big dummy into the gap before chipping over the top and eventually touched down. He also kicked the conversion as Rebels finished the opening half scoring 23 unanswered points.

As Will Harrison left the field with an injury, Jack Maddocks took a shot at penalty but it went wide leaving the visitors scoreless.

With Toomua replaced in the 51st minute, Reece Hodge took over the kicking responsibility and immediately kicked a three-pointer in the 56th minute making the scoreline 26-0.

Any chance of Waratahs coming into the game was put off as replacement Jordan Uelese dotted down at the back of a driving maul with Hodge improving to take the scoreline to 33-0 before Waratahs managed some consolation in the end with tries from Jeremy Williams and Tane Edmed in the final five minutes that helped them reduce their losing margin to 19 points.

Team line-up:

Melbourne Rebels: 15 Tom Pincus, 14 Lachlan Anderson, 13 Stacey Ili, 12 Reece Hodge, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Matt To’omua, 9 Joe Powell, 8 Michael Wells, 7 Richard Hardwick, 6 Joshua Kemeny, 5 Trevor Hosea, 4 Steve Cummins, 3 Pone Faamausili, 2 James Hanson, 1 Cabous Eloff

Reserves: 16 Jordan Uelese, 17 Matt Gibbon, 18 Lucio Sordoni, 19 Tom Nowlan, 20 Robert Leota, 21 James Tuttle, 22 Glen Vaihu, 23 Frank Lomani

Waratahs: 15 Mark Nawaqanitawase, 14 Jack Maddocks, 13 Alex Newsome (captain), 12 Tepai Moeroa, 11 James Ramm, 10 Will Harrison, 9 Jack Grant, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Carlo Tizzano, 6 Lachlan Swinton, 5 Sam Caird, 4 Hugh Sinclair, 3 Te Tera Faulkner, 2 David Porecki, 1 Harry Johnson-Holmes

Reserves: 16 Tom Horton, 17 George Francis, 18 Darcy Breen, 19 Sam Wykes, 20 Jeremy Williams, 21 Henry Robertson, 22 Tane Edmed, 23 Lalakai Foketi