{"id":56058,"date":"2021-04-09T14:09:45","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T14:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=56058"},"modified":"2021-04-09T18:58:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T18:58:13","slug":"battered-and-bruised-rebels-get-no-sympathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=56058","title":{"rendered":"Battered and bruised Rebels get no sympathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

His team is battered and bruised but Melbourne Rebels coach Dave Wessels isn't offering any sympathy following a costly 16-15 Super Rugby loss to the Western Force on Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tim Anstee's late try and Domingo Miotti's conversion put the Force in front before Rebels fullback Reece Hodge missed a late drop goal in a wild finish at AAMI Park.<\/p>\n

Hodge was injured in that final play as Anstee attempted to charge the kick down while earlier captain Matt To'omua was bloodied and dazed in a sickening head clash with Force opposite Kyle Godwin.<\/p>\n

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The Rebels dominated most statistical categories except the final scoreboard and now face a dogfight with the Force for the third finals spot over the last two rounds.<\/p>\n

Wessels was asked afterwards whether he would be putting an arm around his disheartened team, who had been thrashed by the Queensland Reds the week before.<\/p>\n

"I'm not a great cuddler at the best of times," Wessels replied.<\/p>\n

"I don't think we need cuddles \u2013 we need to be tougher and when we talk about things, we've got to execute them."<\/p>\n

To'omua finished the game on the sidelines and said that he had failed his HIA.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Force steal famous win after wild, bizarre finish<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Electric' teen tipped as rugby's next big thing<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Australian rugby's massive 2.01m boost<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1380492156956147713?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

But the playmaker claimed he had "recovered fine" from a "big bang" and would "be good in a few days."<\/p>\n

"Obviously disappointed about that game," the Wallabies veteran told Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

"That's the main emotion. Probably glad it wasn't on Gem to be fair, it was a bit of a scrappy game. Disappointing. It's definitely one that slipped away."<\/p>\n

All Blacks legend Andrew Mehrtens said the potential loss of To'omua and Hodge would be a hammer blow to the reeling Rebels.<\/p>\n

"The loss of those two pivotal players will really affect their next two games, if they do lose them," Mehrtens said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I think he'll have to go through some testing, Matt To'omua. It was fairly obvious that he had taken a bit of a knock and was a bit wobbly on his feet."<\/p>\n

Friday's setbacks just add to an already lengthy injury list that includes Dane Haylett-Petty, Isi Naisarani, Campbell Magnay, Cameron Orr and Lachie Anderson.<\/p>\n

"We've got an unfortunate amount of people that are injured," Wessels deadpanned, while adding that many on that list were close to returning.<\/p>\n

That includes club skipper Haylett-Petty, who has been cleared to resume contact training after a long-term struggle with concussion symptoms.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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His team is battered and bruised but Melbourne Rebels coach Dave Wessels isn't offering any sympathy following a costly 16-15 Super Rugby loss to the […]<\/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\/56058"}],"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=56058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56060,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56058\/revisions\/56060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}