Chiefs end Rebels finals hopes

The Chiefs have secured a 59-8 victory over the Melbourne Rebels at AAMI Park tonight, ending the Rebels season and denying them a chance to make their first ever finals appearance.

Both team’s plans were thrown into disarray in the eighth minute when in form wing Marika Koroibete knocked himself out attempting a tackle on opposition wing Shaun Stevenson.

Joining the winger on the sidelines for the remainder of the game was Chiefs centre Alex Nankivell who succumbed to a knee injury during the same passage of play.

Former Rebel Jack Debreczeni sparked to game into life moments later when he launched a counter attack from within the Chiefs twenty-two. Returning a chip kick, the flyhalf broke the first line of defence before setting in motion an interplay of passes that eventually saw Sam Cane cross for the opening score.

The Chiefs would again capitalise on an errant Rebels kick in the twenty-second minute; Shaun Stevenson regathering a charge down and racing fifty-five metres for a try against the run of play.

Enjoying 68% of possession, the Chiefs made the Melburnians pay one last time before the halftime siren when a wayward pass was picked up by Stevenson who danced fifty metres downfield before linking with Lachlan Boshier for a try.

The Chiefs started the second half the same way they finished the first; wing Sean Wainui crashing over for a try after a dominant scrum had the Rebels on the back foot.

The dust had barely settled when the floodgates opened again; Anton Lienert-Brown finishing off a Chiefs counter attack that seemingly spelt the end of any potential Rebels comeback.

Man of the match Shaun Stevenson capitalised on a poor kick chase from the Rebels one minute later for the Chiefs sixth try in just fifty minutes. The result would spark a clearing of the bench for the Rebels, as the Melburnians looked for any answers they could find.

Debreczeni was enjoying his return to AAMI Park bagging a swag of conversions as well as a try in the fifty-seventh minute.

The Rebels drought looked to have finally broken in the sixtieth minute when Meakes crossed in the corner from a Cooper cut out, only for replays to reveal a knock on from the centre.

Matt Philip provided the sole highlight for the hosts, the lock throwing a dummy thirty metres from the tryline and out-galloping counterpart Brodie Retallick on his way to the chalk in the sixty-fifth minute, to finish off the Rebels most exciting offloading play of the evening.

The Chiefs would not let the Rebels have the last say; tries to McKenzie and Stevenson from turnovers running salt into the wounds of the Rebels and putting an end to their 2019 campaign.


REBELS 8

Tries: Philip
Conversions:
Penalties: Hodge

CHIEFS 59

Tries: Cane, Stevenson (3), Boshier, Wainui, Lienert-Brown, Debreczeni, McKenzie
Conversions: Debreczeni (6), McKenzie
Penalties:

Halftime 21-3 (Chiefs)