Higginbotham red-card prove costly as Reds suffer 45-19 defeat to Rebels

Rebels 45-19 Reds, AAMI Park
Scorecard

Dane Haylett-Petty and Jack Debreczeni scored doubles for Rebels as they went on to defeat 14-men Reds in their Super Rugby face-off at AAMI Park on Friday.

The Reds suffered an early setback in the game with Scott Higginbotham red-carded in just the 9th minute but despite being one-man down, Duncan Paia'Aua crossed over in the 19th minute to get the visitors off the mark.

However, indiscipline continued to hurt them as they were reduced to 13-men temporarily with Lukhan Tui sin-binned that allowed winger Sefanaia Naivalu to touch down at the start of the second quarter to level the scores.

The final 10 minutes of the first half was dominated by Rebels with Tom English (30'), Naivalu (33') and Haylett-Petty (37') scoring tries as the home side ended the first half with a 31-14 lead.

The pressure of having a man less was too much to handle for Reds as Jack Debreczeni (41' and 55') along with Haylett-Petty (46') scored further tries to help Rebels claim a bonus point. Chris Feauai-Sautia did manage to score a consolation try for Reds as they succumbed to a 26 point defeat.