Rebel yells silence travelling Chiefs
this campaign. They picked their act up in the second half, but it was too little, too late as the hustling, bustling Rebels clung on to a 16-3 halftime advantage to secure a well-deserved, and much-needed upset.
If it could have gone wrong, it pretty much did for the Chiefs in a first half where they were heavily penalised and just as heavily punished by their hosts who dominated possession, territory, the referee’s whistle and the scoreboard to lead 16-3 at the break.
The Chiefs conceded eight penalties in the half, including a yellow card for wing James Lowe for striking out with his leg while being held off the ball. That not only cost the Chiefs a player, and three points, but also possibly a try with Charlie Ngatai’s finish of a long-range breakout rubbed out via video review. (Though it’s probably an offside play from Ben Tameifuna’s delicate kickthrough would have done that too.)
The Chiefs certainly had no luck through the first 40. All the 50-50s went against them and Nic Stirzakerr’s strike just before halftime after Scott Higginbotham’s swan dive out wide round the halfway mark looked suspiciously like obstruction as he pinballed off lock Luke Jones.
But they were also strangely offkilter with so much they did, failing to build anything approximating pressure on the Rebels.
Ngatai’s seven-pointer, off a Rebels hash of a Tim Nanai-Williams grubber, just short of the three-quarter mark got the Chiefs within striking distance, and Michael Leitch’s Inspector Gadget arm try a dozen minutes out closed the deficit to a point.
From there it was a matter of whether the hosts could hold on. They could. Liam Messam’s late yellow card helped, but in the end the Rebels deserved the win.
(Scott Higginbotham Nic Stirzaker tries; Jack Debreczeni 2 pens)
(Charlie Ngatai, Michael Leitch tries; Andrew Horrell pen; Damian McKenzie con). 16-3.
When a Matu’u lineout throw found its way into enemy hands, Slade sliced through again, bounced out of Julian Savea’s tackle to put his side up 17-14 10 minutes from the break.
(Brad Shields, Reggie Goodes, Blade Thomson, Beauden Barrett tries, Barrett 3 con, pen) ( Dan Carter, Colin Slade tries, Colin Slade 2 con, 3 pen). 17-17