Outside centre Reece Hodge scored a try in each half as the Melbourne Rebels stormed to a 36-14 win over the Cheetahs in their Super Rugby match on Friday.
After being down 10-14 at halftime, the Rebels scored 26 unanswered points in the second period to move to the top of the Australian conference, one point ahead of the ACT Brumbies, who play the Crusaders in Canberra on Sunday.
“It's good to get the win but it was a bit of a scrappy affair,” Rebels captain Nic Stirzaker said.
“But hats off to the boys, we toughed it out for 80 minutes.”
Stirzaker said the Cheetahs had put enormous pressure on the Melbourne side, particularly through the forward pack.
“They've got a really good set piece and they put us under a lot of pressure at scrum and line-out time,” he said.
“They threw a lot at us so I'm pretty proud of the defence, and it's good to get the bonus point.”
Hodge, who has played a number of backline positions in his debut season of Super Rugby, was called in for his first start at number 13 to replace the injured Mitch Inman.
The rangy Hodge used his speed and deception to full advantage, both his tries coming after scything runs through the Cheetahs defence.
The Cheetahs, who thrashed the Sunwolves 92-13 last weekend, started the better of the two teams and opened the scoring midway through the half when hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld crashed over at the back of a rolling maul.
But the Rebels hit back five minutes later when Hodge sliced through the defence and sprinted 35 metres to score out wide.
Cheetahs fullback Clayton Blommetjies put the visitors back in front when he crossed following some brilliant lead up work from winger Raymond Rhule.
The Bloemfontein-based outfit must have gone into the break full of confidence, but they were rocked from the kick-off when the Rebels regathered and Lopeti Timani touched down 45 seconds after the restart.
From there it was all the Rebels as fullback Jonah Placid scored and Hodge grabbed his second, before inside centre Tamati Ellison, whose wife gave birth to his fourth child an hour before kick-off, took an intercept to secure the bonus point for the home side.
“We came here to get the result, but credit to the Rebels, they put us under a lot of pressure,” Cheetahs captain Francois Venter said.
“We need to go and work hard after this performance -- I'm very disappointed.
“We had our chances, but we couldn't convert them into points.” – AFP