Captain Coleman adds to his stature to keep Rebels focused

Adam Coleman’s display against the Brumbies on Saturday night should silence his critics for now.

Adam Coleman carries the ball against the Brumbies. picture: Getty Images.

The speculation has been coming thick and fast that the Melbourne Rebels captaincy is affecting Adam Coleman’s general play, possibly to the extent of costing him his place in the Wallabies second-row, but that may have all turned around against the Brumbies on Saturday night.

Coleman produced arguably his best game of the season at GIO Stadium. While he might not have reached the high standards of his breakthrough year last season with the Western Force, he was impressively solid throughout and helped keep the Rebels ­focused and on target in a match they could easily have lost.

“I think one of the big learnings to come out of this match has been the outstanding leadership of ‘Adzy’,” said Rebels coach Dave Wessels, referring to Coleman. “That was his best week of captaincy, the way he trained, the messaging was really simple and he has backed it up through his own actions. And I think the boys really got in behind him and the rest of the leaders.”

Certainly Coleman led from the front in defence, especially during that 15-minute period after halftime when the Brumbies, ­already with a lead of 21-10, were camped on the Rebels’ line. His one indiscretion was a high tackle that bounced off Adam Muirhead’s shoulder onto his head, which led to a Brumbies penalty, but even this came back to help the Rebels. Brumbies lock Sam Carter caused as little damage with a high shot on Billy Meakes in the 77th minute, but the referee Nic Berry felt the need to be consistent and up stepped Reece Hodge to land the penalty goal that ultimately gave the Rebels the match, 27-24.

The victory, which broke a five-match losing streak, moved the Rebels into second place in the Australian conference with 25 points, one behind the Waratahs, although the Melbourne team have played 11 matches to just 10 for all the other conference rivals. Given the Tahs and the Reds (17) are playing New Zealand rivals next weekend and the Brumbies (16) are on the road to play the Lions in Johannesburg, it just might be that the Rebels can enjoy their bye without their opponents stealing a march on them.

Wessels was more interested in the psychological lift the victory provided, especially the manner in which it was achieved. “The game was won in the 15 minutes after halftime when the play never left our 22 and the boys gutsed it out.”

Then when the Rebels finally wriggled free from the Brumbies’ trap and piled on the two tries to level the scores at 24-all, their attack bounced back to where it had been when they played the Brumbies early in March at AAMI Park and put five tries on them. “I think the last quarter when we had our hands on the ball and were starting to play, I thought we were causing them real trouble,” he said.

Indeed, it begs the question of whether the switch of Hodge to five-eighth after Jack Debreczeni was replaced around the 55-minute mark was responsible for the turnaround or whether the Rebels were simply revelling in the taste of freedom having been pinned for so long in their own red zone.

Hodge himself was full of running and indeed laid the groundwork for fullback Jack Maddocks’ try as the youngster powered onto his pass on a 25m sprint to the line for his sixth try of the season, putting him just two behind NSW’s Taqele Naiyaravoro as the leading Australian tryscorer of the season.

Certainly Maddocks, who has often been spoken of by Wessels as a possible playmaker, showed a couple of magic moments through the match, picking up a ball off his toes at fullback and transferring it to his outside backs with no loss of momentum, while the Brumbies were momentarily lost when he flung a deliberate pass behind his back to unmarked Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete.

Whether it is too early for a Wallabies call-up for the 21-year-old remains to be seen but there is no question in Wessels’ mind that it will happen and happen soon. “He’s a special player and it was nice to see him throw that pass to Marika. That’s what we want to encourage. And he was having fun out there, which is important.”

Worryingly, the crowd was only 5283, the second-smallest Brumbies crowd on record, which should encourage club officials to start pressuring the ACT government to provide an indoor facility.

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