Rebels ready to raise bar even higher

The Rebels claimed their greatest victory in their short history with a 28-19 upset of the seven-time Super Rugby champion Crusaders in Melbourne on Saturday.

Now they want to raise the bar even higher and knock over some other big guns.

The Crusaders fought back from an early Melbourne onslaught to lead 19-10 at half time, but two tries in as many minutes late in the game from Nick Phipps and Stirling Mortlock gave the Rebels a lead they protected bravely, keeping the Crusaders scoreless in the second half with a fierce defensive effort.

Rebels captain Gareth Delve said that his side are finally beginning to reap the rewards for the belief that has been building from their increasingly impressive performances this season.

“We set a bit of a standard last week [a 35-41 loss to the table-topping Bulls] in how we wanted to play the game and the guys off the bench made a massive impact,” the Rebels’ Welsh skipper, Delve, said.

“To hold such a fantastic team as the Crusaders scoreless for the second half is amazing and shows that we are really making some progress and the key now is to keep pushing on.”

The Crusaders were left to rue a sloppy second half, after they looked to take control of the game in a 10-minute period just before the break.

“Those periods straight after half-time were what killed us,” Crusaders skipper Richie McCaw said, adding that his team “made crucial mistakes and you can’t afford to do that.”

Delve also spoke of the character his team showed.

“That last 20 minutes, when we got those couple of tries and held them out for the whole of that second half without scoring, I think that’s the culmination of all the work we’ve done, all that belief that’s built up,” said Delve.

“I think that it’s been building for a long time but it’s nice that it’s finally come to the fore.”