McGahan urges Rebels to step up
After falling short against the in-form Hurricanes this past weekend, the Rebels are at home for the second consecutive week and determined to bounce back after suffering a 13-38 defeat to the 2015 Super Rugby finalists.
“We have all those really good elements and our challenge is to go to the next level,” McGahan said.
“And the next level requires that tactical part of working your way through the game and working your way through when you’re under pressure, to be able to get yourself out of trouble and minimise your weaknesses to really go forward.
“Those things are easy to fix and we’re lucky we’ve got all the solutions.”
Along with a strong defence, there were other positives for the Rebels to take away from their performance against the Hurricanes.
“I think we turned the ball over well, certain patches of our attack worked well, the scrum was excellent again and we’ve got an excellent group who play hard for each other,” the Melbourn-based franchise's boss added.
“Once we get (within) 40 metres of the try line we look alright but until you get down there we’ve got to do the hard work, whether that’s through carry, kick or pass, we’ve just got to be better.”
The Rebels host a Cheetah’s side full of confidence after the Bloemfontein side recorded the second largest victory in Super Rugby history with a 92-17 demolition of the Sunwolves.
The Cheetahs scored 14 tries to two to end a three-game losing streak and arrive in Melbourne sitting in fifth in the South African Conference.
Expecting a strong and dangerous Cheetahs outfit, McGahan said it’s up to the players to turn the result around.
“We need to be honest with where we’re at and understand what we need to do to get better,” he explained.
“There’s no use feeling sorry for ourselves or waiting for someone else to do something, we need to get in there and get it done.
“We need to turn those really small margins over for us – they really blow out the magnitude of where you’re at, but we need to make sure we nail them.
“[It’s really important] for the next couple of weeks in this block that we do that [with] the Cheetahs and Blues coming up.
“That’s the nature of top level rugby.”
