Rebels earn bonus point victory over Sunwolves

Melbourne’s Rebels earned a 9-35 bonus point victory over Japan’s Sunwolves at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium inTokyo.

The Rebels outscored the Sunwolves by four tries to none in the match which earned them a bonus point for scoring tries.

The Rebels tries were scored by Jordy Reid, Ben Meehan, Tom English and Sean McMahon.

Reid scored the Rebels first try in the opening half which helped them to an 6-11 lead at half time.

The Melbourne side kept the new Japanese side tryless in the match and all of the Sunwolves points came from their kicker Tusi Pisi.

The Sunwolves had been competitive in their first two matches but against the Rebels they got a taste of how difficult things can be in a league like Super Rugby.

The Rebels stubbornly refused to buckle as the Sunwolves pushed for a try, even when lock Lopeti Timani was sent to the sin bin for a shoulder charge.

Far from being put out as they went a man down, the Rebels even extended their lead when captain Sean McMahon went over for his side’s fourth try after 69 minutes.

Leading 11-6 at halftime, the Rebels demonstrated the gulf in the class with halfback Ben Meehan and winger Tom English also scoring tries to cap a period of sustained pressure.

“Our team showed a real growing maturity to withstand the Sunwolves attacks and play for the full 80 minutes,” said Rebels coach Tony McGahan.

Flyhalf Tusi Pisi’s three successful penalties were scant consolation for the Sunwolves, whose fragile confidence will have been dented further after their most lopsided defeat to date.

“We go into every game as the underdog,” Sunwolves head coach Mark Hammett told reporters. “If we lose we always stay positive. The only time I won’t be positive is when we don’t bring character and attitude.”

Sunwolves skipper Shota Horie added: “When the fatigue got to us in the second half, we didn’t communicate well. You saw the gap in experience in Super Rugby.”

The match was the Sunwolves first against Australian opposition as both of their previous encounter’s had been against South African sides.

Next week the Rebels are back at home in Melbourne while the Sunwolves travel back to Singapore where they will host the Bulls.

Final Score Sunwolves 9 (6) Rebels 35 (11)

Scorers

Sunwolves
Tries –
Pen – T.Pisi 3
Con –
Drop –

Rebels
Tries – J.Reid , B.Meehan,T.English ,S.McMahon
Pen – J. Debreczeni 3
Con – J.Debreczeni
Drop –
Cards – L.timani (61st min yellow)

Match Officials
Referee: Mike Fraser
Assistant Ref 1:Shuhei Kubo
Assistant Ref 2:Noriaki Hashimoto
TMO : Takashi Hareda

Teams

Sunwolves

15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Akihito Yamada, 13.Harumichi Tatekawa , 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Mifiposeti Paea, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 8 Edward Quirk, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Yoshiya Hosoda, 5 Hitoshi Ono, 4 Timothy Bond, 3 Takuma Asahara, 2 Shota Horie (c), 1 Keith Inagaki.

Replacements : 16.Takeshi Kizu,17. Masataka Mikami,18.Shinosuke Kakinaga , 19.Shinya Makabe, 20.Tomas Leonardi, 21, Kaito Shigeno, 22 Derek Carpenter, 23. Yasutaka Sasakura

Melbourne Rebels

1. Toby Smith , 2. Pat Leafa , 3. Laurie Weeks , 4. Luke Jones , 5. Lopeti Timani , 6. Jordy Reid , 7. Sean McMahon (captain) , 8. Adam Thomson , 9. Ben Meehan , 10. Jack Debreczeni , 11. Tom English , 12. Mitch Inman , 13. Tamati Ellison , 14. Dom Shipperley , 15. Jonah Placid

Replacements : 16. James Hanson , 17. Cruze Ah Nau , 18. Jamie Hagan , 19. Sam Jeffries , 20. Scott Fuglistaller , 21. Nic Stirzaker , 22. Dan Hawkins , 23. Stone Tuipulotu