Melbourne Rebels #REBvCHI Official Program by MelbourneRebels

OFFICIAL PROGRAM #REBvCHI

MELBOURNE REBELS V

WAIKATO CHIEFS 7:45PM FRIDAY 17 MARCH AAMI PARK, MELBOURNE PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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WELCOME REBELS V CHIEFS FRI 17 MAR PROGRAM CONTENTS

Fáilte, Kia Ora, Welcome,

Welcome 1

It’s been a long two weeks since the last outing against the Hurricanes and the pain of Wellington hasn’t dissipated amongst players, coaches or staff.

The Rebels return from the bye week full of vigor, fight and hunger.

Feature Story

Community Story

Meet #OurRebels

Team Lists

Week by Week

Training Gallery

Dewar Shield

Rebels U20s Draw

Partners

The week off provided the club with an opportunity to hit the reset button and get some hard work under the belt before the Rebels welcome the Chiefs to AAMI Park for St. Patrick’s Day. There’s no doubt that it’s been a challenging start to the season, and it’s not about to get any easier when we host the two-time Super Rugby champions, but the team is ready compete at a Rebels standard. The Rebels will play a New Zealand franchise for the third consecutive week, just the second time in the club’s history that they have played three Tasman rivals in as many weeks since the Crusaders, Chiefs and Blues in Round 11-13 in 2013. The season isn’t defined by the first couple of games with our six Australian derbies and seven home

games still to come so the Rebels still have plenty to play for with 14 Rounds to go. The season hasn’t been without milestones so far. A total of nine players, and potentially a tenth tonight with the uncapped Murray Douglas named on the reserves bench for the first time, have made their Melbourne Rebels debuts so far this season. The Rebels have added Amanaki Mafi, Jackson Garden-Bachop, Jack Maddock, Jordan Uelese, Ben Volavola, Tyrel Lomax, Jake Schatz, Marika Koroibete and Fereti Sa’aga to the new representatives honour board in the change room. Lock Lopeti Timani celebrated his 50th Super Rugby appearance against the Hurricanes and tonight hooker Pat Leafa will join an illustrious group of players to record 50 Super Rugby appearances for the Rebels following Captain Nic Strizaker in the opening round. Please celebrate your St. Patrick’s Day responsibly & enjoy the game. Slán!

#OurRebels

Design & Pre-Press Daniel McEvoy, Lizzie Jackson, Ayden Hurst Content Creation Chris Gottaas, Fraser Stewart Images Getty Images, Mike Baker, Dave Callow, Michael Rummery, Andrew Stevenson

FEATURE STORY

REBELS NOT LOOKING BACKWARDS WORDS BY FRASER STEWART

The Melbourne Rebels are prepared to put the performances of the opening two rounds behind them when they host the Chiefs from Waikato at AAMI Park tonight. The Rebels are coming off a bye round, after two disappointing outings against the Auckland Blues and Wellington Hurricanes to start their 2017 Vodafone Super Rugby campaign. Rebels head coach Tony McGahan remains upbeat and is looking to improve on previous performances

when they take on the Chiefs. “Our performances haven’t been good enough in the first two weeks and whatever excuses we could hang onto would be nice but we know that ultimately we’re judged on what we do on the field and that starts again (tonight),” McGahan said. “We understand that we had a really tough start to the season, certainly the score lines don’t reflect the work that we’ve put in so we need to make sure that we address that.”

The bye has provided McGahan and his Rebels chargers an opportunity to hit the reset button and regroup before some hard work on the training ground in preparation for the Chiefs. There was good news on the eve of their clash with the Chiefs with the announcement that Sefa Naivalu will make his first appearance of the season after he was sidelined for the opening two rounds with a leg infection. Naivalu will team up with childhood friend Marika Koroibete on the wings for the first time together while home grown talent Fereti Sa’aga will make his Super Rugby run-on debut after he impressed off the bench against the Hurricanes. “We need to get our best players on the field and marching on,” McGahan said. “We had a pretty good run during pre-season but then we ended up with seven or eight guys out (with injury) for Round 1 and so we’re playing a little bit of catch up to get them back on the field and fitness under their belt.”

“We need a performance this weekend that we can hang our hat on” With 13 games still to play, the Rebels are focused on getting their season back on track with a solid performance on Friday night. “We need a performance this weekend that we can hang our hat on and something to build off because we understand the competition and where the Australian sides are,” McGahan said. “It’s a long season and we understand that our performances have been anything but poor so we need to make sure that we’re getting better in our performance this week.”

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STORY

REBELS RE-COMMIT TO COMMUNITY The Melbourne Rebels will continue its commitment to Victorian local rugby with the return of the Dewar Shield Ambassador program in 2017. The program will see every Melbourne Rebels contracted players assigned as an ambassador to a local rugby clubs, where their role will vary from playing for their club, attending functions, junior registration days and engaging with all stakeholders. “The Dewar Shield ambassador program has made some really

good progress over the last couple of years so we’re really excited about continuing to build on our existing relationships with the local Rugby clubs in 2017,” Melbourne Rebels General Manager Rugby Operations Baden Stephenson said. “The Dewar Shield teams are really excited to build on the existing relationship with the Melbourne Rebels as it could see a potential to grow the game and to grow the future of the competition.”

For the fourth consecutive year, delegates from all local Rugby clubs were invited to Rebels head office on Wednesday afternoon where they joined playing squad and coaching staff for lunch before watching a training session. “It’s important to the future of the Rebels that we continue to increase our engagement with Victorian club Rugby and reinforce our commitment to providing local players with a pathway to achieve their dreams.

“Since the Rebels Ambassador program was established a couple years ago we’ve seen first hand the standard of the premier Dewar Shield increase across the competition. The Rebels have reaped the benefits of the Ambassador Program with four local home-grown players having made their Super Rugby debut over the last 12 months with Sione Tuipulotu, Rob Leota, Jordan Uelese and Fereti Sa’aga. Visit melbournerebels.com for the full list of club ambassadors for 2017.

FOR MORE INFO HEAD TO MELBOURNEREBELS.COM.AU

MEET #OURREBELS The extended playing squad to battle it out for Super Rugby glory

For more info on #OurRebels head to

melbournerebels.com

7:30PM FRIDAY 17 MARCH AAMI PARK, MELBOURNE

MELBOURNE REBELS 1

Fereti Sa’aga

James Hanson

Laurie Weeks

Culum Retallick

Steve Cummins

Jordy Reid

Colby Fainga’a

Amanaki Mafi

Nic Stirzaker

Jackson Garden-Bachop

Marika Koroibete

Reece Hodge

Tom English

Sefa Naivalu

Jack Debreczeni

KEEP SCORE TRIES PENALTY GOALS CONVERSIONS DROP GOALS TURNOVERS

LINEBREAKS

TOTAL

KEEP AN EYE ON... TOM ENGLISH

THE BENCH 16. Pat Leafa 17. Cruze Ah-Nau 18. Tyrel Lomax 19. Murray Douglas 20. Jake Schatz 21. Ben Meehan 22. Sione Tuipulotu 23. Ben Volavola

OFF-FIELD TEAM Head Coach: Tony McGahan Asst. Coaches: Zane Hilton, Craig McGrath, Morgan Turinui Ath Performance: Damian Mednis S&C: Shane Lehane, Brendan Whelan Team Manager: Mark Rowe Analysts: Eoin Toolan, John Batina Doctor: Dr. Asheer Singh Asst Manager: Chris Thomson Head Physio: Cullan Ball Rehab: Nick Court GM Rugby: Baden Stephenson

TEAM LISTS

KEEP AN EYE ON... TONI PULU

THE BENCH 16. Hika Elliot 17. Siegfried Fisiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ihoi 18. Atu Moli 19. Mitchell Brown 20. Mitchell Karpik 21. Finlay Christie 22. Aaron Cruden 23. Johnny Faauli

OFF-FIELD TEAM Head Coach: Dave Rennie Asst. Coaches: Andrew Strawbridge, Kieron Keane, Neil Barnes Performance Analysts: Regan Hall, Mark Ray

WAIKATO CHIEFS 1

Kane Hames

Sabastian Siataga

Nepo Laulala

Dominic Bird

Brodie Retallick

Tom Sanders

Sam Cane

Liam Messam

Tawera Kerr-Barlow

Damian McKenzie

Solomon Alaimalo

Stephen Donald

Anton Lienert-Brown

Toni Pulu

Shaun Stevenson

KEEP SCORE

TOTAL

TRIES PENALTY GOALS CONVERSIONS DROP GOALS TURNOVERS LINEBREAKS

2017 HOME JERSEY ROUND 4 SPECIAL

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WEEK BY WEEK

UPCOMING 2017 MATCHES

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2017 DEWAR SHIELD DRAW

V1 as at 23 Nov

Round 1 Moorabbin v Endeavour Hills v Footscray v Souths v Melbourne Uni v

25 March Power House Box Hill Melbourne Harlequins Bye

Round 10 Power House Box Hill Melbourne Harlequins Bye

Round 2 Melbourne Footscray Box Hill Souths Power House

1 April Endeavour Hills Harlequins Melbourne Uni Moorabbin Bye

Round 11 Endeavour Hills v Harlequins v Melbourne Uni v Moorabbin v Power House v

10 June Melbourne Footscray Box Hill Souths Bye

Round 3 Harlequins v Endeavour Hills v Moorabbin v Melbourne Uni v Box hill v

8 April Power House Souths Footscray Melbourne Bye

Round 12 Power House Souths Footscray Melbourne Bye

v v v v v

17 June Harlequins Endeavour Hills Moorabbin Melbourne Uni Box hill

Round 4 Souths v Melbourne v Box Hill v Footscray v Endeavour Hills v

22 April Melbourne Uni Moorabbin Harlequins Power House Bye

Round 13 Melbourne Uni Moorabbin Harlequins Power House Bye

v v v v v

24 June Souths Melbourne Box Hill Footscray Endeavour Hills

Round 5 Power House Harlequins Melbourne Uni Melbourne Bye

v v v v v

29 April Souths Moorabbin Endeavour Hills Box Hill Footscray

Round 14 Souths v Moorabbin v Endeavour Hills v Box Hill v Footscray v

1 July Power House Harlequins Melbourne Uni Melbourne Bye

Round 6 Harlequins v Moorabbin v Endeavour Hills v Box Hill v Souths v

6 May Melbourne Melbourne Uni Power House Footscray Bye

Round 15 Melbourne Melbourne Uni Power House Footscray Bye

8 July Harlequins Moorabbin Endeavour Hills Box Hill Souths

v v v v

v v v v v

3 June Moorabbin Endeavour Hills Footscray Souths Melbourne Uni

13 May Endeavour Hills Box Hill Footscray Melbourne Bye

Round 16 Endeavour Hills v Box Hill v Footscray v Melbourne v Bye v

15 July Moorabbin Power House Melbourne Uni Souths Harlequins

Round 8 Footscray v Box Hill v Power House v Endeavour Hills v Melbourne v

20 May Souths Moorabbin Melbourne Uni Harlequins Bye

Round 17 Souths Moorabbin Melbourne Uni Harlequins Bye

Round 9 Souths Melbourne Melbourne Uni Footscray Moorabbin

27 May Box Hill Power House Harlequins Endeavour Hills Bye

Round 7 Moorabbin Power House Melbourne Uni Souths Harlequins

v v v v v

Finals

P1, P2, P3 - Four Team Playoff 5 August - Semi Finals SF 1 - Team 1 v Team 2 SF 2 - Team 3 v Team 4 12 August - Preliminary Final Loser SF 1 v Winner SF 2 19 August â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Grand Final Winner SF1 v Winner PF Game Management Match Starting Times: Dewar Shield 3:10pm Premier 2 1:30pm Colts 12.00pm Premier 3 12:00pm (Field 2) Women 1.30pm (Field 2) Premier 4 3:00pm (Field 2) Match Duration Premier 1 & 2 Premier 3 & 4

Halves 40 Min 35 Min

Stoppage Time Yes Yes

Season Break : Easter (15 April) Melbourne Rebels Fixture Red denotes home match Opposition

Time (local)

Thus 23 Feb

Blues

19:30

Sun 4 Mar

Hurricanes

15:15

RND

Date

1 2

ROUND 3 BYE 4

Fri 17 Mar

Chiefs

17:30

Fri 24 Mar

Waratahs

19:30

Fri 31 Mar

Highlanders

17:35

ROUND 7 BYE 8

Sat15 April

Brumbies

19:30

Sun 23 Apr

Sharks

3.30

Sun 30 Apr

Kings

3.30

Sat 6 May

Lions

15:00

v v v v v

22 July Footscray Box Hill Power House Endeavour Hills Melbourne

Round 18 Box Hill v Power House v Harlequins v Endeavour Hills v Bye v

29 July Souths Melbourne Melbourne Uni Footscray Moorabbin

Sat 13 May

Reds