'Hurting all of us': Rebels' perfect response to 'soft' jab

The pain in Rob Leota’s wobbly voice summed up the feeling among the Melbourne Rebels – that win meant a lot.

Already facing financial strain and an uncertain future, the Rebels offered up a performance in round one Wallabies legend Tim Horan labelled soft.

That struck a chord with the 23-man squad, who turned around a 34-19 deficit in the 50th minute against the Western Force to win 48-34 at full-time.

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The scrum was almost infallible from the Rebels and a shaky line-out only got better as the match wore on.

“I’m so proud,” said captain Leota.

“Just being part of that pack, our forwards coach Geoff Parling puts a lot of effort in, so when we hear messages like that it’s all of us, it’s hurting all of us.

“Geoff got a little bit emotional before our game today and we really wanted to do a job for him and really just block out that criticism and focus on us.

“We’re glad that we’re able to show a good performance as a pack and we’ll keep doing that the whole year.”

The Rebels were beaten by the Brumbies in round one, smashed 30-3 at home.

That led Horan to unleash a brutal summation of the team’s efforts.

“The forward pack of the Rebels was as soft as I’ve seen them,” he said in the days after.

“I really hope they bounce back this weekend because Andrew Kellaway at fullback was the only shining light for that Rebels team.”

Indeed, Kellaway was a shining light for the Rebels again, scoring the opening try and nabbing another by the end of the match.

Asked how the confidence levels were in the camp, Andrew Kellaway replied, “Pretty low after last week.

“I think we were all disappointed with that one. Look, a slow start again, but another step in the right direction.”

After Kellaway’s first effort in the seventh minute, the Force responded through Chase Tiatia and Tim Horton, who scored back-to-back in the space of six minutes.

Carter Gordon brought the deficit back just before half-time with a try in the 34th minute before his hard work was undone by a Max Burey just three minutes later.

At the break, the Force led 24-19.

Kellaway scored his second just six minutes into the second half before Michael Wells responded almost immediately, plonking the ball down two minutes later.

HUGE COMEBACK 🤩 Down 15-34, the Rebels put on an incredible turnaround to seal their first win of 2024!

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From there, it was one-way traffic at 34-15. Josh Kemeny stretched over to score in the 53rd minute and Gordon intercepted the ball to run away from the Force defensive for his second.

Filipo Daugunu scored the first of his two tries in the 57th minute with an epic run down the sideline and 15 minutes later was in for another.

All told, the Rebels were victors 48-34.