{"id":280887,"date":"2023-03-25T10:55:33","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T11:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=280887"},"modified":"2023-03-25T20:59:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T20:59:16","slug":"buy-of-the-season-stars-in-controversial-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=280887","title":{"rendered":"'Buy of the season' stars in controversial thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Horan hailed Vaiolini Ekuasi as "the buy of the season" as the marauding No.8 sparked the Melbourne Rebels to an upset 40-34 upset win against the Queensland Reds on Saturday night.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 21-year-old from Auckland played one Super Rugby Pacific game for the Blues last year before moving to Australia in search of more regular playing time.<\/p>\n

\ufeffEkuasi had been impressive off the bench in 2023 but an injury to Richard Hardwick gave him the opportunity to start at AAMI Park.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"'Buy<\/p>\n

He didn't let it slip, scoring his first Rebels try \ufefflate in the first half with an eye-catching blend of athleticism and power.<\/p>\n

"I reckon it's the buy of the season," Wallabies legend Horan said on Nine and Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

"He can play this kid. He's only got one season here (on contract) with the Rebels and I reckon they will be chatting to him on Monday morning… what a game he's had."<\/p>\n

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\"Vaiolini<\/p>\n

Commentator Sean Maloney concurred.<\/p>\n

"If I'm Nick Stiles,\ufeff the general manager down here, I'm saying, 'Hey, well, how about a couple more?' He was huge in that game against the Waratahs (in round three) when he came off the bench and just blew the game apart," Maloney said.<\/p>\n

"A New Zealand 20s representative, has obviously picked up plenty behind some of those freaks with the Blues, (Dalton) Papalii and the rest of them. My goodness."<\/p>\n

\"Commentators<\/p>\n

Both teams had late tries scrubbed out in a seesawing, entertaining game.<\/p>\n

Rebels substitute Daniel Maiava's runaway try was denied after officials decided Brad Wilkin's strip of Harry Wilson was a knock on.<\/p>\n

Then, Reds halfback Tate McDermott scooted over in the corner to set up James O'Connor for a sideline conversion \ufeffto potentially win the match.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/wwos\/status\/1639570688200839170?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

But referee Graham Cooper and TMO \ufeffBrett Cronan agreed that Reds lock Ryan Smith had illegally held Josh Kemeny and denied him the opportunity to make a tackle on McDermott.<\/p>\n

"It doesn't stop him from getting there," Drew Mitchell said in commentary.<\/p>\n

"He had already made his decision to go open side."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/QuadeCooper\/status\/1639571377689870336?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

Fellow former Wallaby Morgan Turinui \ufeffwent even harder at the officials.<\/p>\n

"I just think that refereeing decision isn't up to Super Rugby Pacific standard," Turinui said.<\/p>\n

"I think Brett Cronan's got it wrong. I think they've talked Cooper into it. When he says it's a clear hold back, it's not. When they say it denies the opportunity to make a tackle that was never going to be made, it's wrong. They've got that wrong."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1639567346133274624?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

But as Turinui noted, \ufeffthe improved Rebels were probably the better team across the 80 minutes and deserved their win.<\/p>\n

And Rebels coach Kevin Foote was correct in his assessment that the McDermott no try call was "harsh" on the Reds but it balanced out the earlier Maiava decision.\ufeff<\/p>\n

The Rebels took a 26-14 halftime lead after they recovered from a slow start and both sides traded points until late into the game when Melbourne's Angelo Smith crossed the line with 13 minutes to go.<\/p>\n

The Reds and Rebels now both have 2-3 records with Queensland sitting one spot ahead in sixth by virtue of an extra bonus point.\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Horan hailed Vaiolini Ekuasi as "the buy of the season" as the marauding No.8 sparked the Melbourne Rebels to an upset 40-34 upset win […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280889,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280887\/revisions\/280889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}