{"id":371198,"date":"2024-02-28T01:45:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T02:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371198"},"modified":"2024-02-28T06:04:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T06:04:18","slug":"wallabies-icon-slams-soft-melbourne-forwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371198","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies icon slams 'soft' Melbourne forwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies icon Tim Horan \ufeffhas slammed the Melbourne Rebels forward pack as "soft" in the wake of their deflating 30-3 loss to the ACT Brumbies last Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Horan expressed sympathy for the plight of the club – which is expected to fold at the end of the Super Rugby Pacific season<\/a> – but was surprised that they were unable to aim up for round one.<\/p>\n

Melbourne is hosting all 12 clubs in the Super Round \ufeffat AAMI Park this weekend and the Rebels will take on another round one flop in the Western Force on Friday.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWatch all the action from the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season, with<\/strong><\/em> every match ad free, live and and on demand on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Rob<\/p>\n

"I thought the Rebels were really poor," Horan said on Stan Sport's Rugby Heaven<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"I spoke a couple of weeks leading into the competition that I thought Nick Stiles (Rebels general manager of rugby) had his fingerprints all over this team. (Taniela) Tupou, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, (Filipo) Daugunu. I thought this is as good a list that the Rebels have had.<\/p>\n

"They were poor and the forward pack of the Rebels was as soft as I've seen them. So I really hope they bounce back this weekend because Andrew Kellaway at fullback was the only shining light for that Rebels team."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Olympic coach handed five year ban for 'abuse'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Twist in racism scandal as Clarkson to face Hawks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Cale<\/p>\n

The crisis at the Rebels deepened a fortnight ago after Rugby Australia confirmed that 10 staff members, including the chief executive, had lost their jobs.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"You can see from the Rebels that what's happening off the field, it's certainly having an effect on the players' mindset," Horan said.<\/p>\n

"Where am I going to be next year? Where can I play? I'm ringing the manager – can I go offshore, is someone else in Super Rugby going to pick me up? It's playing on their mind.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Another former Wallaby, Cameron Shepherd, added that he was "shocked" at the gap between the two teams.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe New Zealand Herald reported that Argentina's dormant Jaguares franchise – which played Super Rugby from 2016-19 and made the 2019 final – were the frontrunners to replace the Rebels next year.<\/p>\n

"Most of the work about the future shape of the competition in terms of number of teams and formats is focused on 2026 and the next media rights cycle," New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson said on the Rugby Direct<\/em> podcast.<\/p>\n

NEW PODCAST! Michael Atkinson, Sam Worthington and Iain Payten unpack the mess at the Rebels, review Stan's Wallabies documentary and look forward to Super Round<\/strong><\/em>\ufeff<\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/rugby-world-cup-inside-line\/what-for-the-melbourne-rebels-and-australian-rugby\/embed?in_playlist=podcast&style=Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

"Clearly the Rebels' challenges have meant some of those conversations have been brought forward a little bit. We're not 100 per cent sure around where the Rebels' future sits but it's significantly challenged at the moment.<\/p>\n

"It's too early to say what the number of teams are going to be. We need to find out exactly where the Rebels are at and then work through the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

"There's lots of different conversations as it relates to South America; North America, Japan as potentially interested parties but we need a bit more detail on that before we can comment too much further."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wallabies icon Tim Horan \ufeffhas slammed the Melbourne Rebels forward pack as "soft" in the wake of their deflating 30-3 loss to the ACT Brumbies […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371200,"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\/371198"}],"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=371198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371202,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371198\/revisions\/371202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/371200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}