The Naarm Rebels have named their Match Day 23 for this Saturday’s Cultural Round match against Moana Pasifika at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland.
Rebels Head Coach, Kevin Foote, has made four changes to this week’s team, with the Auckland-born David Feliuai replacing the injured Stacey Ili at inside centre.
Feliuai has impressed in his first season at Melbourne, with the twenty-five-year-old playing four matches, including a starring role in the Rebels’ Round 5 win over Australian rivals, the Queensland Reds.
Josh Canham will also miss the game, allowing Angelo Smith to move into the No.4, while Tim Cardall moves to the bench to make his Super Rugby debut.
Cardall joined the Rebels after playing four years for Premiership Rugby side, Wasps Rugby Football Club, where the lock played 23 matches for the Coventry Club.
Cabous Eloff has been named for his sixth game of the season, replacing Cameron Orr as a finisher. Joining Eloff is human wrecking-ball Tamati Ioane, who has been named for his first match of this year’s campaign.
After dominating the Canberra Club competition from 2020 to 2021, Ioane joined the Rebels last year going on to make ten appearances including five starts in his maiden Super Rugby season.
Ionae’s inclusion will add explosive ball running and reliable defense to an already-strong Rebels backrow boasting Josh Kemeny, the recently re-signed, Vaiolini Ekuasi and Captain Brad Wilkin, who last Friday scored a career-high, fourth try of the season.
Rounding out the Rebels late game finishers is debutant Tim Cardall, James Tuttle, Joe Pincus and Lukas Ripley, who made an impressive cameo during last week’s battle against the Crusaders.
After replacing Stacey Ili early in the first half, the twenty-one-year-old registered 15 tackles, making four runs and looms as a player to watch after an impressive opening 2022 campaign, where the rookie scored four tries in two matches against New Zealand opposition.
As part of the Cultural Round celebrations, the Melbourne Rebels have taken on the name of the Naarm Rebels, which will complement this year’s Cultural Jersey which celebrates our First Nations peoples as the oldest living culture in the world.
The Rebels will honour them through the visualisation of the Yarra River, and the communities that gather around it including our expansive Pasifika family that journeyed to Naarm and now resides on Wurundjeri land.
Both Pasifika and First Nations patterns harmoniously straddle shared zones of the jersey depicting Samoan, Fijian, Tongan, Cook Island and Niuean artworks that travel upwards to embrace the First Nations designs.
This visual coming together of cultures is joined by Bunjil, the eagle (front of jersey) and Waang, the crow (back of jersey), who are both creation deities of the Kuli Nation.
Our jersey honours the coming together of many peoples to form the rich collective that is the beating heart of our Rebels family.
The Naarm Rebels has a playing squad that represents 29 cultures, something our Club is immensely proud of. One Club of many cultures.
Naarm Rebels Match Day 23 vs Moana Pasifika
1. Matt Gibbon
2. Alex Mafi
3. Sam Talakai
4. Angelo Smith
5. Trevor Hosea
6. Josh Kemeny
7. Brad Wilkin
8. Vaiolini Ekuasi
9. Ryan Louwrens
10. Carter Gordon
11. Monty Ioane
12. David Feliuai
13. Reece Hodge
14. Lachie Anderson
15. Andrew Kellaway
16. Jordan Uelese
17. Cabous Eloff
18. Pone Faamausili
19. Tim Cardall
20. Tamati Ioane
21. James Tuttle
22. Joe Pincus
23. Lukas Ripley
