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Rebels bench Cipriani for opener

Danny innit said:
What a load of rubbish!

Stirling Mortlock, may be 33, but given Tindall still plays international rugby at the same age, it's a bit premature to write him off. As for your comments on Gareth Delve, you obviously never saw him Captain against Saracens, and weren't following the news prior to his departure to Oz (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbyn...bid-to-fulfil-world-cup-dream-91466-27993093/). You say Michael Lipman is past it, but with the amount of time out of the game he's taken, who's to know? Stevens is back with you lot after a much longer lay off, Higgins is doing well at Exeter and Crockett seems to be first choice wherever he goes. I'd genuinely not support any one of those guys if they pulled on Cherry & White. Especially fat Matt. Greg Somerville old? Again, you couldn't have been following the news much. The NZRU competed with the Rebels for his signature in the hope he'd return home to be their first choice tight head for the world cup. He's also the most capped AB front rower and is hugely respected in the Southern Hemisphere.

As for Cipriani, from the times I saw him play, I always thought the hype was greater than the player. This move will be the making or breaking of him. Personally, I have doubts over his ability and rate players such as Myler, Burns and Flood ten times better. To be honest, I'd pick Gareth Steenson of Exeter over Celebriani.
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check the result. yes i was over-exagerrating, but my point remains the same - they're a crap team. and i was right.
 
Ummmn ... when do the rebels play their first match :p

... you couldn't call that woeful display as actually playing a match, surely :)

I guess they went ok for the first 20 mins ... Lipman and Delve were the only positives for the Rebels in this match for me
 
gingergenius said:
check the result. yes i was over-exagerrating, but my point remains the same - they're a crap team. and i was right.
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Probably on the same crap level as Saracens. Also a factor that the Waratahs are the best Australian team and one of the favourites for the cup.
 
Gavin said:
Probably on the same crap level as Saracens.
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Hardly,
I dislike Sarries as much as the next guy, but Rebels looked a shambles this morning,
I know they're only just getting together, but that's no excuse for the scrum being completely destroyed, the lineouts going to pot, and committing more than half the team to each ruck. There were a lot of handling errors, and players making the wrong decisions,
They were a poor showing this morning,
I hope they improve, and they probably will with time, but there's no two ways about it really
 
Gavin said:
Probably on the same crap level as Saracens. Also a factor that the Waratahs are the best Australian team and one of the favourites for the cup.
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Bite.

Exactly the same crap level as Saracens. That's why Saracens are looking like certs for a Premiership playoff place, have a 3/3 record against the 2 best teams in the league so far this season...
 
Delve and Lipman looked only decent players out there, I thought they would have shown a little better. I don't think they will end bottom however.
 
gingergenius said:
Bite.

Exactly the same crap level as Saracens. That's why Saracens are looking like certs for a Premiership playoff place, have a 3/3 record against the 2 best teams in the league so far this season...
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And also why they did nothing in their Heineken Cup group.

If I remember correctly you have a tendancy to saying that because a team loses by a large margin they are crap. May I make reference to a previous comment about the Italian national squad.

The fact is the Rebels are only a new team, it was their first 'real' game because their pre-season wins have been against Fiji (I think). They came up against a side who are one of the best sides in the competition, are ***le contenders, and have not been brought together in the past six months or more. Take the Western Force for example; ok they are probably the 4th best Australian side in the Super 15, and their first season or two was not the best, but not they are solid performers. They have star players like O'Connor and Pocock (they even had Giteau before he moved to the Brumbies). I think it was in their first season that they drew with the Crusaders, which up until that point the men from Christchurch had not dropped a point. So I suggest you wait until they have played at least four games before you can judge if they are crap or not (and even then crap is the wrong term to use).
 
That Rebels song was ******* dire.
Worse than their performance, IMO.

Good performance from Gareth at least.
 
Gavin said:
And also why they did nothing in their Heineken Cup group.

If I remember correctly you have a tendancy to saying that because a team loses by a large margin they are crap. May I make reference to a previous comment about the Italian national squad.

The fact is the Rebels are only a new team, it was their first 'real' game because their pre-season wins have been against Fiji (I think). They came up against a side who are one of the best sides in the competition, are ***le contenders, and have not been brought together in the past six months or more. Take the Western Force for example; ok they are probably the 4th best Australian side in the Super 15, and their first season or two was not the best, but not they are solid performers. They have star players like O'Connor and Pocock (they even had Giteau before he moved to the Brumbies). I think it was in their first season that they drew with the Crusaders, which up until that point the men from Christchurch had not dropped a point. So I suggest you wait until they have played at least four games before you can judge if they are crap or not (and even then crap is the wrong term to use).
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Well if you're trying to tell me the Italians are a good side as well then you've completely lost me.

Besides, you've missed my point. I don't care whether the Rebels are playing their first or 100th game. I was saying that the 15 they lined up with was sub-par. Which it was. Mentioning Giteau, Pocock and O'Connor at the Force is all very well, but the Rebels have 0 players of that calibre.

And bringing Saracens into it is completely irrelevant. Of all the teams to compare the Rebels to, one of England's better teams is not the place to start.
 
I'm shocked at the general crapness of that team. A few months ago I thought they would be competing for the playoffs but I don't see that happening now. 25,000 was a [pretty good crowd though for their first game.
 
To be fair the Waratahs were incredibly slick, they looked like they'd been playing for weeks and weeks - I don't think any team would've beaten them on the night.
 
William18 said:
I'm shocked at the general crapness of that team. A few months ago I thought they would be competing for the playoffs but I don't see that happening now. 25,000 was a [pretty good crowd though for their first game.
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How could you think a new team started from scratch would compete for the play offs in its first year?:huh::huh:
 
Charles said:
How could you think a new team started from scratch would compete for the play offs in its first year?:huh::huh:
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Well, it happens. Lots of new teams in the NRL have gone very close examples being Brisbane, Gold Coast, Warriors (missing out on a minor technicality), Hunter Mariners, Storm (3rd in first year, won it the very next). All of those occurring in the last 25 years. In the A-League we saw Gold Coast come 3rd in their first season.

I thought the Rebels would do well because they had made some very good signings in Mortlock, Sommerville and Cipriani. I just did not realise that they were their only good signings.
 
What a waste of time this team is. Expansion for the sake of expansion in any competition is dumb. Not like Australia has too many good players to fit into 4 teams, hence why this team is made up of randoms from all over the place.
 
donmcdazzle said:
What a waste of time this team is. Expansion for the sake of expansion in any competition is dumb. Not like Australia has too many good players to fit into 4 teams, hence why this team is made up of randoms from all over the place.
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Yep, that's what they said about the Force, and it took them a couple of seasons, but they are now competitive ... you would hope that with the Rebels being allowed 10 international players in their squad, that they would become competitive quickly
 

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