Melbourne Rebels’ depth tested after knee injury to winger Lachlan Mitchell

MELBOURNE back Lachlan Mitchell has been cleared of knee ligament damage, but requires further scans to determine the exact nature of the injury.

MELBOURNE back Lachlan Mitchell has been cleared of ligament damage to his right knee, but requires further scans to determine the exact nature of the injury.

Mitchell was cut down only minutes into his 50th appearance for the Rebels in the club’s 32-8 loss to NSW amid fears the foundation winger had suffered ligament damage.

Scans cleared Mitchell of soft-tissue problems but there is bone damage.

Mitchell’s unavailability further dents Melbourne’s depth as it comes to terms with a third consecutive Super Rugby defeat.

But Rebels’ coach Tony McGahan has vowed to accelerate the Rebels’ learning curve as a promising season teeters.

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Hired to speed Melbourne’s development, McGahan guided the Rebels to an unprecedented three straight trial match wins before the record victory over the Cheetahs last month.

Since then, Melbourne has fallen to three successive losses — and a worrying trend has emerged.

While the Rebels were supremely dominant against the Cheetahs, they’ve suffered from terminal bouts of inconsistency against Western Force, the Crusaders and NSW.

Poor attitude cost Melbourne against the Force, while handling lapses saw the Crusaders escape with a six-point victory.

And they were outclassed in the second half on Friday night by an accomplished and highly talented NSW outfit.

Far from being daunted by a mounting challenge, McGahan is digging in ahead of Friday’s clash with last season’s finalist ACT Brumbies.

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“The harsh reality for the group is that we need to get better and we need to crack the whip,” he said.

“That’s the bottom line.

“Acceleration and learning, we need to continue to accelerate and really push those buttons.

“We’ll keep doing that as a group. We’re all in it together.”

McGahan expected Melbourne’s inexperience to be a factor after 15 players, including Friday night’s destroyer Kurtley Beale and Nick Phipps, left the club at the end of last season.

With a 1-3 record ahead of clashes against the Brumbies, the Highlanders in Dunedin and reigning champions the Chiefs, in Hamilton, reality is biting hard.

“We’re all fully aware of where it was,” he said of Melbourne’s current plight.

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“We lost 15 guys last year with a huge amount of experience. Putting together a group with 15 new players out of 35, a new staff, takes a bit to gel.

“We’re looking at all those things. We’re looking at depth. We’ve got a few more (injuries) so that’s going to keep exposing underneath of where we’re at.

“But we’re understand that. It’s a harsh environment.”

Melbourne conceded three of four tries to NSW either through turnovers or set piece sloppiness.

“We were decent enough but just those two turnover balls (that led to tries) and the set piece try — we’d run through that maybe 12 times this week,” McGahan lamented.

“You get a bad read from one player and it certainly opens you up.

“There’s three tries.”