FEATURE Why the Rebels will not go gently into that good night

The Australian sportsman or woman is nothing if not resilient, they are at their best when backed into a corner. The hydra-headed story of Australian professional rugby is no different. Cut off one head, and two shall grow back in its place.

When Rugby Australia attempted to take a scalpel to their top-heavy representation in Super Rugby back in 2017 by trimming the Western Force, the reaction was immediate and decisive. Billionaire Force founding member Andrew Forrest not only backed the Western Australian outfit to the hilt, he went further, threatening to bankroll an alternative Indo-Pacific competition with new teams from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

‘Twiggy’ had the money and the political clout to force a major rethink by the governing body, and within three years the Perth-based franchise was back in the Super Rugby AU fold. Now it appears the same is happening in Victoria, at the beleaguered Melbourne Rebels. The Rebels organisation was drowning in a sea of debt and entered voluntary administration at the end of January, but eight short weeks the rescue boat is on the way.

Ex-Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford is the figurehead of a consortium looking to raise $20-30m AUD in private equity investment and move the Melbourne Rebels to the city’s Western Suburbs, linking up with Western United of Australian soccer’s A-League in the process. As with Forrest and the Force, the saving vision goes well beyond survival, with consortium spokesperson and Rebels director Georgia Widdup gesturing towards a thriving multi-sport, culturally-inclusive community.

“We have an exciting vision and a detailed, common-sense plan to grow the sport of rugby in the fastest growing municipality in Australia.

“The Rebels are committed to the women’s game, the Pasifika community and important programs for the western region’s youth and this move will enable us to significantly expand these critical areas.’’

These are not the words, or the tone, of an organisation ready to go gently into the long ‘goodnight’ of administration – at least, not without a great deal of constructive raging against the dying of the light.

It is still a race against the clock, with only six rounds of Super Rugby Pacific play remaining in the regular season and coaching contracts due to expire on 30^th June.

As always, the bittersweet taste of adversity turns out to be the ally and motivator Australian sport needs to do its best work, and the Rebels are finally beginning to motor on the field, with five wins from their first eight games placing them fourth in the table.

Only the table-topping Hurricanes have scored more tries than the Rebels [38 to Melbourne’s 37], so there is plenty of cohesion with ball in hand, even if it is far less obvious on the other side of the ball.

The hardships experienced by the Rebels have forged some potent on-field understandings and synergies within the team – by no means either unform or complete across the whole XV, but more than enough to highlight the deficits of their more fortunate cousins in New South Wales.

Where there is no obvious interplay between the Waratahs’ main creator, fly-half Tane Edmed, and their youthful full-back Max Jorgensen on attack, the opposite is true of Melbourne’s pairing in the same spots, Carter Gordon and Andrew Kellaway.

Gordon and Kellaway interchange at every opportunity, from exits and in backfield scenarios.

The situation featuring Kellaway at first receiver and Gordon outside him at second is repeatable and effective: it takes the pressure off Carter, builds trust between the pair working in tandem and begins to create an important sub-unit within the team on offence.

The Rebels have just regathered one of their own restarts, and their full-back automatically fills in at first receiver so Gordon can use the full width of his passing from second. That evident comfort on the interchange between the two in turn allows HSBC SVNS sensation Darby Lancaster to display his own wares in favourable circumstances on the wide left.

One bit of established cohesion creates another in the bud. That is how a ‘kid wonder’ – as ex-Wallaby great Tim Horan nattily nicknamed Lancaster after the game – is born. Not by overblown commentary or wishful thinking, but by concrete actions and outcomes on the field.

The synergy between the Rebels 10 and 15 created uncertainty throughout for the Highlanders defence.

It is the approach work to the ruck in midfield which matters: Kellaway drifting out to the left as a legitimate playmaking option, and scrum-half Ryan Louwrens following him with his eyes. It demands a fold around the ruck by three Highlanders and leaves the defence flat-footed and short-handed when the ball is shifted out to the other side via Gordon instead. One desperate lunge later, and the result was a penalty try and a yellow card on the Landers’ full-back Jacob Ratumaitvuki-Kneepkens. Nice work if you can get it.

The Melburnian cohesion did not end there. The next step was to include a superior ball-handling forward, second row Lukhan Salakaia-Loto in the attacking package out on the wide left.

In the screenshot, LSL is on the inside edge of a kick-chase, along with the outside backs – number 13 Filip Daugunu, 15 Kellaway and 11 Lancaster. When play comes back to the same side on the return, he is still there in support because his ball-handling skills are good enough to justify the role. Louwrens scored on the very next play. In the second clip, they allow Lancaster’s sevens skills in space to shine, with a smart play-the-ball permitting ‘kid wonder’ a second bite at the cherry near the Highlander’s goalline.

The twin icings on the cake were Lancaster’s interception try right at the end, and interpassing of the Rebels’ number 5, 15 and 10 in the best-constructed try at the beginning of the final quarter.

In the second of the two clips, the ball is moved out through one of the ‘most trusted’ ball-handling forwards/backs pairs – Lukhan/Gordon – then on through a second couple [Taniela Tupou off the bench, offloading to Kellaway] – before the blonde-maned outside-half finishes the move underneath the posts.

All four of those players will form part of Joe Schmidt’s first Wallaby squad announcement, and wing Lancaster could yet be an electric bolter. Others such as centre/wing Daugunu, loosehead Matt Gibbon and back-row Josh Kemeny may also be towed in by the tide if the Rebels’ current winning run turns into playoff success.

When Schmidt sits down to examine potential playmaking pairings for the game against Georgia and the series versus Wales in July, right now he will be most impressed by the claims of Noah Lolesio and Tom Wright in Canberra, and Gordon and Kellaway in Melbourne. The combination of Edmed and Jorgensen in Sydney does not have the same offensive synergy, and Will Harrison will weigh in on that debate before the season’s end.

Harrison’s triumphal return from the dark underworld of two years lost to injury, to kick the winning goal against the reigning champions in extra time, was a typically Australian fairytale of sporting redemption defying the odds.

The Rebels may also come back from the brink, from staring into the abyss of administration. They may yet not only survive, but thrive if the Tarneit dual-sport masterplan comes to fruition.

But the patchy history of the two expansion franchises begs questions: why does Australian rugby lurch from one crisis to another? Why the need for imminent peril to clarify its thinking, on and off the field? Why the sword of Damocles, poised to strike overhead before the brightness of a new vision dawns?