Rebels win Perth snorefest

The Rebels scored a 21-17 win over the Western Force in a dour Super Rugby Round Five encounter in Perth on Friday.

It was two tries apiece, but three penalties and a conversion off the boot of Rebels fullback Mike Harris proved to be the difference in a game that never reached any great heights.

The error count was astronomical, giving the game the resemblance of amateur hour – with 30-odd handling errors and turnovers between the two sides.

For the Rebels it was a good result, as they returned to the winning list after a poor run.

The Rebels took advantage of another slow Force start to open up a 15-point lead in the first half, before hanging on grimly in the dying moments to win for the sixth time in their last seven clashes with the West Australian team.

It was their first victory since the opening round of the season and gives them two wins from four matches, while the Force have just one win from five games.

Mike Harris scored 16 points for the Rebels, including the opening try when he broke through some feeble defence to score under the posts.

With the Force racking up the handling errors, the Rebels were in complete control when they added a second try through Dom Shipperley in the 23rd minute, after some clean ball movement.

Down 0-15 as half-time loomed, the Force stole a morale-boosting try when Alby Mathewson took a quick tap after a penalty and caught the Rebels unaware to score his team's first try.

Up 15-7 at the break, the Rebels still looked to be doing enough when they led 21-10 heading into the last 10 minutes.

However, the Force's Tetera Faulkner dived over in the 75th minute to cut the deficit to just four points.

The Force made two late surges in an attempt to steal the win, but the first saw the Rebels steal possession and the second ended with a penalty against the home team.

Rebels skipper Scott Higginbotham was a relieved man after the match.

"I'm happy to get the win," he said.

"The Force kept us going for the whole 80 minutes."

Force captain Sam Wykes lamented his team's slow start.

"We kicked too much ball away again," he said.

"We wanted to have a fast start in that first 20 [minutes]."

Man of the match: It is hard to find stand-out players in a game of such poor quality. You could go for Rebels fullback Mike Harris, for his goal-kicking. However, Western Force lock Steve Mafi briefly injected life into the snorefest with a couple of great runs in the second half and he gets our award.

The scorers:

For the Western Force:

Tries: Mathewson, Faulkner

Con: Burton 2

Pens: Holmes

For the Rebels:

Tries: Harris, Shipperley

Con: Harris

Pens: Harris 3

Teams:

Western Force: 15 Luke Burton, 14 Marcel Brache, 13 Kyle Godwin, 12 Solomoni Jnr Rasolea, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Zack Holmes, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Chris Alcock, 6 Brynard Stander, 5 Steve Mafi, 4 Sam Wykes (captain), 3 Tetera Faulkner, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Pekahou Cowan.

Replacements: 16 Heath Tessmann, 17 Chris Heiberg, 18 Oliver Hoskins, 19 Adam Coleman, 20 Kane Koteka, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Sias Ebersohn, 23 Mitchell Scott.

Rebels: 15 Mike Harris, 14 Dom Shipperley, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Mitch Inman, 11 Tom English, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 9 Nic Stirzaker, 8 Scott Higginbotham, 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.

Referee: Rohan Hoffmann (Australia)

Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Graham Cooper (Australia)

TMO: Peter Marshall (Australia)