Rebels cracking down on infringements
The Rebels have been cracking down on discipline as they aim to turn their penalty count around against the Crusaders on Friday night.
Melbourne are the most-penalised team in Super Rugby this season, with 104, and have conceded five yellow cards, just one fewer than their next opponents.
Skipper Adam Coleman lamented their discipline issues on Thursday, admitting an element of responsibility for the issues they had.
“We take it as a team but it’s definitely on me to get the message out to the boys,” he said.
“It’s also up to the individual to take it upon themselves just to have that mental application towards taking a step, not being offside, for the team.
“We talk about love in the team and that shows it.
Coleman said they had been adding in some punishments for bad discipline in training
“We had a few (extra) laps around the place,” he said
“We spoke about it, it’s coming from training.
“We’re ill-disciplined at training and not really getting punished as much on the field, so this week we’re a lot harder at training on our discipline and I think it’s really going to transfer onto the field.”
The pressure will be on the forward pack to match it with the Crusaders in Melbourne, Coleman said, after being out-muscled in Cape Town.
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“In the forwards, they’re a very physical pack and the Crusaders have shown throughout the years that they love to go to the set piece,” he said.
“We’ve done some work on training to really turn our set piece around and we know it’s coming, it’s not like we don’t know they go to set piece.
“They go to set piece a lot and frequently and they really back themselves to get results and outcomes from that area of the game.
“We know as forwards that we’re going to have to front up and really respond from our performance from last week.”
Melbourne will be boosted by the return of Will Genia at halfback, as well as the injection of Colby Faingaa at openside, a more traditional seven than some of the other options they’ve used this season.
The Rebels host the Crusaders on Friday night, kicking off at 7:45pm AEST, LIVE on FOX SPORTS and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO. Buy tickets here.