{"id":62471,"date":"2021-04-24T14:01:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T14:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=62471"},"modified":"2021-04-24T17:58:28","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T17:58:28","slug":"super-rugby-coachs-eye-opening-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=62471","title":{"rendered":"Super Rugby coach's eye-opening interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Rebels coach Dave Wessels has lifted the lid on the extent of the challenges that his club faces after consigning the NSW Waratahs to a winless Super Rugby AU season.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 36-25 victory in Sydney on Saturday eased some pressure on Wessels, whose side finished fourth of five teams in the domestic tournament.<\/p>\n

Wessels is in his fourth season as Rebels coach and has an overall record of 24 wins, 29 losses and one draw.<\/p>\n

The friendly South African came under increased scrutiny during the week as Stan Sport's Tim Horan said he was a "dead man walking"<\/a> unless he managed to pilot the Rebels into the grand final against the Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n

The only place rugby fans can watch every match is Stan Sport. Start your free sport trial now!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That won't be happening but to his credit Wessels again fronted up post-match to join an analysis panel that included Horan.<\/p>\n

Some of his quotes were eye-opening.<\/p>\n

"There's a lot of macro challenges that we have that some of the other teams in the comp don't have," Wessels said of a club that perennially struggles to gain traction in AFL territory.<\/p>\n

"Coaching is only a small part of the job down there.<\/p>\n

"We don't have a general manager of rugby, we don't even have our own facilities, we can't train when we want to train, we've got to drive 30 minutes to a gym every day, we can't do double (training session) days.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Tahs complete winless season in violent clash<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Reds flee Perth, request 'Ballymore bubble'<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Inspired signing ends Force's torture<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"So there's a lot of things, in games that are coming down to the last kick, I think there's bits and pieces I can do away from the rugby to try and fix those things so that we can actually compete on a level pegging."<\/p>\n

Wessels also reflected on the fact that 14 months ago, pre-pandemic, the Rebels managed to upset the Highlanders in Dunedin with a starting XV that included 11 players no longer at the club.<\/p>\n

"We're just not going to win anything unless we can build some continuity with the list," Wessels said bluntly.<\/p>\n

"The good thing is we have a young, talented list now that care for the club and a lot of them are local boys. The goal is to keep this group together for a period of time."<\/p>\n

\"Rebels<\/p>\n

Wessels was asked by former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika what aspect of the Rebels' game would keep him up at night as he resets towards the Super Rugby trans-Tasman tournament, which the Rebels kick off against the Blues in Melbourne on May 15.<\/p>\n

"Our attack has been very inconsistent and quite poor at times so we need to spend some time on that in the next couple of weeks," Wessels said.<\/p>\n

"Coming into the year we had so many injuries \u2013 until recently about nine or 10 starting players out. A lot of experience that was missing."<\/p>\n

Wessels is off contract at the end of the season and Rebels chief executive Baden Stephenson told the Sydney Morning Herald this week that no decisions regarding his position had yet been made.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Baden's a very good man," Wessels said.<\/p>\n

"When the going gets tough some people run and Baden stayed, definitely, this week with me.<\/p>\n

"I really appreciated that and I also understand it's professional sport. I'm probably as competitive as anybody in that room. We're really disappointed to miss the playoffs for a year.<\/p>\n

"Having to rebuild every year, that's really what's hurting us."<\/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 clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Rebels coach Dave Wessels has lifted the lid on the extent of the challenges that his club faces after consigning the NSW Waratahs to […]<\/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\/62471"}],"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=62471"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62474,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62471\/revisions\/62474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}