Reds and Rebels back Super Time concept despite stalemate

Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 1:15 PM
Beth Newman
by Beth Newman
The Rebels hosted the Reds at Brookvale Oval in round two.

Neither side walked away a winner but both the Reds and Rebels backed the element of Super Time after their 92-minute draw on Friday night.

A 79th minute Alex Mafi try sent the game into the first Super Time period but neither side managed to get the win by the end of the 10 extra minutes they played.

The closest either team got was a penalty attempt from Bryce Hegarty that faded short and to the right.

Rebels captain Dane Haylett-Petty went so far as to endorse a possible extension of the time to ensure a winner is decided.

"It probably gives the fans what they want and no one really wants a draw at the end," he said.

"It probably would've been good to keep going until there was a winner but I think we're definitely disappointed.

"We felt like we dominated large parts of the game and had a couple of disallowed tries early and just didn't quite take the opportunities to put them away."

"I thought it was really good, you could see the players were out on their feet but everyone was pushing to try and get that result, build a bit of pressure and try and get that winning point.

The Super Time period was dominated by kicking and a number of scrums and Reds coach Brad Thorn said it was ultimately a bit of a "play it by ear" for his side.

"We pride ourselves on our scrummaging and our stability, showed that last week," he said.

"We talked about the new rules and different things with the guys throughout the six week prep but it was a little bit play it by ear.

"Obviously field position's important, coming from a league background where I played quite a few, field position's really important and you could see the two teams trying to get into the right end and then if there's any error there, there's a shot available there.

"There was to and fro but you talk about the game in Australia, it's a pretty exciting finish if you think about someone watching the rugby, you've got 90 minutes of rugby that went right down to the wire."

Reds captain Liam Wright said there was a definite sense that neither side wanted to be the one to give away the Super Time winner.

"It was a bit of a weird period, obviously no one wanted to make a mistake in their own half and give up a penalty so there was a lot of kicking, a lot of territory, just back and forth chasing so couldn't be separated at the end," he said.

"Credit to both teams ,they just did a job on each other and we've just got to find ways to make opportunities in those periods.

Asked whether he felt scrum resets should stop the clock in the Super Time period, Rebels coach Dave Wessels said it was worth looking into addressing that issue for the broader game.

The concept of limiting scrum resets had been discussed in the lead-up to Super Rugby AU but wasn't formally adopted as a law change.

"I think scrum resets generally in rugby we want to look at as much as we can," he said.

"I think in league you've seen how they've, don't know what they call it but they reintroduced the set of six without the whistle blowing.

"I think something like that where we could get a short arm instead of resetting the scrum, just keep the game flowing (would be good).

"I don't think that's necessarily an Australian problem, that's probably just the game of rugby that something like that that we might look at."

The Rebels have a bye next week while the Reds return to Brisbane and host the Force in round three.

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