Rebels blow Hurricanes away

The Rebels threw the form book out the window on Friday, after beating the Hurricanes 42-25 at AAMI Stadium in Melbourne.

Coming off a 50-point thrashing to the Reds a week ago, not much hope rested on the home side against the Super Rugby veterans from New Zealand.

And down 17-0 after as many minutes, another whitewash looked on the cards. But the Rebels bounced back in superb fashion to not only level the scores at half-time (20-20), but went on to score three more tries after the break and post their biggest win thus far in the tournament.

The Rebels outscored their shell-shocked visitors six tries to four, to bag a bonus point for their efforts and - more importantly - restore some pride.

Lock Alister Campbell scored a try in each half to contribute to the Rebels' comeback while former England fly-half Danny Cipriani kicked 14 points from four conversions and two penalties.

The Hurricanes have now lost two on the trot, but will be kicking themselves after an amateurish start from the newcomers saw the visitors race into a 17-0 lead.

Chris Eaton, Victor Vito and Daniel Kirkpatrick all took advantage of slipshod defending which saw the Rebels miss 14 early tackles before their forwards got their act together.

When they did, former Wallabies prop Rodney Blake and Campbell both burrowed over for close-range tries, with flank Michael Lipman adding his name to the Rebels score-sheet after crossing over following a neat cross-field chip from Cipriani.

Cipriani, who had a mixed performance with the boot, then locked up the scoreline at 20-20 on the half-time hooter when he kicked a penalty from the halfway line.

The momentum stayed with the Rebels after half-time, Campbell grabbing a second, Cooper Vuna finishing a fluent move and Nick Phipps putting the game out of the 'Canes reach.

With Cipriani adding the extras the Rebels were out to 42-20 and the match was theirs for the keeping.

The Hurricanes showed some spirit to add a late try to replacement hooker Dane Coles but it was the Rebels celebrating their second victory of the season in front of their vocal home crowd.

The scorers:

For Rebels:
Tries: Blake, Campbell 2, Lipman, Phibbs, Vuna
Cons: Cipriani 3
Pens: Cipriani 2

For Hurricanes:
Tries: Eaton, Vito, Kirkpatrick, Coles
Con: Kirkpatrick
Pen: Kirkpatrick

Rebels: 15 Richard Kingi, 14 Luke Rooney, 13 Lachlan Mitchell, 12 Stirling Mortlock (c), 11 Cooper Vuna, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Gareth Delve, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 Jarrod Saffy, 5 Hugh Pyle, 4 Alister Campbell, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Ged Robinson, 1 Rodney Blake.
Replacements: 16 Luke Holmes, 17 Laurie Weeks, 18 Adam Byrnes, 19 Tim Davidson, 20 JP Du Plessis, 21 Peter Betham, 22 Afusipa Taumoepeau.

Hurricanes: 15 Cory Jane, 14 Julian Savea, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Andre Taylor, 10 Daniel Kirkpatrick, 9 Chris Eaton, 8 Victor Vito, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Faifili Levave, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Andrew Hore (c), 1 John Schwalger.
Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Anthony Perenise, 18 James Broadhurst, 19 Serge Lilo, 20 Tyson Keats, 21 Aaron Cruden, 22 Jayden Hayward.

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)