Rebels hooker Jordan Uelese says the people of Victoria will be a driving force for the Melbourne side in their Super Rugby AU campaign.
The Rebels have been based in Canberra for the past three weeks but will relocate to the Central Coast on Wednesday, unable to return to a locked down Melbourne in the midst of a second coronavirus wave.
Since the Rebels left Victoria, Melbourne has returned to stage three lockdown, confining people to their homes for all but essential trips.
Last week the Rebels had a bye and Uelese said it was a good time to reset but was also quick to point to the challenges that those back home were dealing with.
“(The bye week) has been a good time just to finally take a breath and take in everything that's happened,” he said.
“We had to leave Victoria within two days of finding out so that was pretty tough but we get to stay in hotels and we get to go out to cafes and have dinner out while we're here.People in Victoria who are doing it tough - speaking to Mum and Dad, they've got to round with masks now, they're at the age where they're probably prone to the coronavirus.”
Uelese said the thoughts of the challenges many players’ families and the wider state were facing kept things squarely in perspective.
“The people of Victoria are doing it way tougher than we are, that's probably something that's driving us and bringing us together as a group, making Victoria proud and doing something that we've never done before, make finals," he said.
“That's probably another bit of a silver lining of being away from Victoria, just really gelling as a team and trying to make our state proud and our members proud.”
Delivering on the field will also be critical for the Rebels as the sport faces another bout of uncertainty, something that has brought with it renewed discussion about Australia’s professional depth.
Rugby Australia has been adamant it wants to continue with at least four teams in 2021 and hopefully five, after New Zealand Rugby proposed a model that could account for as few as two Australian teams.
The New Zealand announcement renewed discussion in Australian circles about the contraction of teams and inevitably that led to pundits, most notably former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles, question the Rebels’ place at the top.
While Uelese said he didn’t buy into speculation around team changes, he said without the Rebels he didn’t feel like he would have made it in rugby.
“As footy players, we just do what we get paid to do, we do what we love, let's just play footy and let the results on the field do the talking,” he said.
“There's five Victorians on this touring party, I think that speaks volumes already of the pathways of the Rebels and the Victorian community rugby have done in terms of trying to set a platform and set academies and invest money into the community to try and get players to come through.
“In terms of that (competition structure), we haven't really spoken of it but as a Victorian player and someone who's grown up in the city, if there wasn't the Melbourne Rebels I probably wouldn't be the player and I probably wouldn't have the platform that I have today to make the teams that I have and be the footy player I am today.”.
Uelese has his own personal challenge against the Waratahs this weekend as the Rebels look to steady a lineout that wobbled in a round two draw with the Reds.
The Waratahs disrupted the Brumbies lineout in their clash last week and Uelese said they would be acutely aware of that threat.
“We've always known they've had a great lineout, they've got Simmo (Rob Simmons) there, Ned Hanigan back as well so two tall timber and very experienced Wallabies locks,” he said.
“Probably been a good time to have a week off, spent two days last week training, working on our lineouts.
“Obviously didn't go too well against the Reds but that's probably something we've worked on really hard and want to come hard at this week. not going to be easy but we’ve got the guys in place in our team to really adapt.”
The Waratahs take on the Rebels on Friday July 24 at the SCG, kicking off at 7:05pm AEST, LIVE on Foxtel, Foxtel Now and Kayo Sports. Buy tickets here. Buy a Kayo subscription here.
