Melbourne Rebels’ head coach Tony McGahan made just 1 enforced change to his side to face the Emirates Lions on Friday at AAMI Park in Round 6 of the Super Rugby season.
Rebels recruits Mike Harris and Dom Shipperley will each make their 50th Super Rugby appearances this week.
Australian Under 20 fullback Jonah Placid, who made 1 Super Rugby appearance before moving to Melbourne, prior to the National Rugby Championship, will make his Rebels debut alongside his half-centurion former Reds teammates.
Jack Debreczeni, who earlier this week appeared on track to play, has been withdrawn with a minor knee complaint, with Harris moving to flyhalf and Placid starting at fullback.
In better news on the injury front, Lopeti Timani has been declared fit to play after a head knock last week, while Tom Sexton has again been named as a reserve and is in with a chance to make his Rebels debut.
McGahan said he was pleased with the impact Harris and Shipperley have made since moving to Melbourne, and was delighted that they get to celebrate their milestone in front of a home crowd who have quickly warmed to then.
“Mike and Dom have had a big impact on the group, both on and off the field, and make the job of their teammates a lot easier,” McGahan said.
“I’m pleased for both of them to reach this milestone despite having plenty of years of Rugby ahead of them, and I know the Rebels members and fans at AAMI Park will get behind them and the rest of the team as we look to build on last weekend’s victory in Perth.”
McGahan said he was confident that Placid would make the most of his 1st opportunity to play Super Rugby for the Rebels, after impressing at AAMI Park for the Melbourne Rising.
“Jonah is somebody who we believe has a very exciting future, and all the signs in training indicate he is ready to play at this level,” he said. “We’re looking forward to seeing him in action on Friday night.”
Rebels: 15 Jonah Placid, 14 Dom Shipperley, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Mitch Inman, 11 Tom English, 10 Mike Harris, 9 Nic Stirzaker, 8 Scott Higginbotham (Captain), 7 Scott Fuglistaller, 6 Sean McMahon, 5 Lopeti Timani, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Laurie Weeks, 2 Pat Leafa, 1 Toby Smith
Replacements: 16 Tom Sexton, 17 Cruze Ah-Nau, 18 Paul Alo-Emile, 19 Steve Cummins, 20 Colby Fainga’a, 21 Luke Burgess, 22 Bryce Hegarty, 23 Sefanaia Naivalu.
Date: Friday 20 March
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Kick-Off: 10:40 SA Time (19:40 Melbourne Time, 21:40 NZ Time, 08:40 GMT)
Referee: Mike Fraser
Assistant Referees: Rohan Hoffmann, Will Houston
TMO: James Leckie
So 2 resounding victories for Pool 2 teams against their Pool 1 opponents at the World Cup. I wonder if the next two quarter finals will see 2 resounding victories for Pool 1 teams. Think both Pool 1 teams could win but not by the same kind of margins that we have seen in the first two quarter finals. Interesting as I initially thought Pool 1 was stronger than Pool 2 with Aus, NZ, Sri Lanka, England and Bangladesh in it, but didn’t bargain on England being as dire as they were, so for me there were at least 4 powerhouses of cricket in Pool 1 but Pool 2 only had India and SA as the real powerhouses with West Indies able to produce the odd moment of magic and Pakistan being the France of the cricket world i.e. you never know which one would turn up.
Would SA prefer NZ or Windies in the semi-final….