Reds brush past Rebels
The Reds completed the double over Melbourne Rebels as they cruised to a 33-18 victory.
By Tony Curtis - Twitter: @SkySportsTC
Last Updated: 06/05/11 4:12pm
The Reds completed the double over Melbourne Rebels as they cruised to a 33-18 victory.
Although the Rebels put up more of a fight in the second encounter of the season against the Queensland franchise, their tackling once again let them down.
Scott Higginbotham, Radike Samo, Dom Shipperley and Digby Ioane all crossed for the visitors, with Quade Cooper slotting over 13 points.
Rebels did show some promising moments in attack and they could have finished closer but for poor goal-kicking displays by Julian Huxley and Stirling Mortlock.
Huxley could manage just one penalty, with James Hilgendorf, Afusipa Taumoepeau and Pete Betham scoring tries.
Punish
And Mortlock was left to rue his side's defending against one of the best back divisions in Super Rugby.
"I'm pretty happy with our effort but we let ourselves slip down in certain passages," said the Rebels skipper.
"Unfortunately when you are playing a good team like the Reds, they punish you and they really did get two or three really easy tries."
Reds captain James Horwill claimed the shock defeat to the Hurricanes last time out helped galvanise the squad.
"The loss was a wake-up call," Horwill said. "We needed to start well and continue the pressure and credit to the boys we did that."
