Rebels bring in Stiles in bid to unlock Blues

The Melbourne Rebels have brought in former Queensland coach Nick Stiles to help shore up their scrum.

Former Queensland Reds head coach Nick Stiles has been working with the Rebels.

The Melbourne Rebels have brought in former Queensland coach and Wallabies prop Nick Stiles this week to help shore up their scrum as they attempt to bring down the second strongest set piece in Super Rugby, the Blues, at the citadel of New Zealand rugby, Eden Park.

It has been — not that anyone is counting — 1071 days since the last win by an Australian Super Rugby side on the other side of the ditch and there is both good news and bad that the Blues now stand in the way of a third win in succession by the Rebels. The bad is that the Blues are undefeated in their past 11 games against Australian opposition; but the good is that the Auckland side has lost all six home matches at Eden Park this year and is without All Blacks Sonny Bill Williams (knee injury), Rieko Ioane (rested) and James Parsons (concussion).

But while all else around them has been failing, the Blues scrum at least has been holding rock solid. Indeed, only one other scrum is ranked ahead of them in Super Rugby, the Chiefs. The Rebels, by contract, come in at a lowly 10th but with some guest coaching from Stiles, that could be about to change.

Even when the Reds were in the doldrums, Stiles ensured that their set pieces — scrum and lineout — were among the best in the competition and according to Rebels coach Dave Wessels, the Melbourne scrum has made “huge progress” under him. Certainly with Jermaine Ainsley — who ­Michael Cheika specifically rated as being unlucky to have missed selection in the Wallabies — back at tighthead, the Rebels take on a more formidable look up front.

One more win will equal the most number of wins in a season for the Rebels, seven, and would push them ahead of the Waratahs on the Australian conference ladder. Whether they stay there will depend on how the Tahs perform a few hours later against the Reds in Brisbane.

The Rebels are at full strength, save for halfback Will Genia who they decided not to pick in order to ensure he is fully fit for the Wallabies against Ireland in the first Test next Saturday.

“If there was no Test next week, Will would have played, although I say that realising that Michael Ruru has played his two best games in our past two matches,” said Wessels.

Inevitably, the Rebels’ decision to stand Genia down is being contrasted with the Brumbies who have insisted on playing three players tomorrow against the Sunwolves in defiance of a request from Cheika who wants them fully prepared to play Ireland. Yet that is not a comparison that Wessels wants to see made, insisting that the Brumbies have their own circumstances to deal with.

“I guess I feel strongly in Australian rugby that we need to change the conversation a little bit and start supporting each other in various ways a little bit,” he said. “We need to start living by each other’s happiness not by each other’s misery.”

Genia aside, Wessels is assisting Cheika in another way by retaining Reece Hodge at five-eighth. He played there for the first time this season against the Sunwolves last week and performed well but it is one thing making decisions in the face of the Japanese side and another entirely when it is Jerome Kaino, Akira Ioane and Dalton ­Papalii bearing down on you.

Still, Wessels has complete faith in him at No 10, as indeed does Cheika who sees him as the backline gap-filler up to the World Cup. “He’s a pretty physical player,” said the Rebels coach. “He’s brave. He played flat to the line against the Sunwolves and gave them no chance to recover.”