Melbourne’s Rebels kept the pressure on their Australian rivals by beating the Sunwolves 52-7 with a bonus point at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo.
The Rebels victory is their fifth straight win over the Japanese side and their second in Tokyo. The result keeps them in second place in the Australian conference but just a point behind leaders the Brumbies.
The Rebels outscored the Sunwolves by eight tries to one with Marika Koroibete scoring two tries and giving up the chance to score a third by passing to his team mate and Rebels captain Dane Haylett-Petty.
Rebels winder Jack Maddocks also crossed the tryline twice as the Melbourne side amassed their biggest ever score since joining Super rugby in 2011.
The Rebels victory may however come at a cost as early in the second half star half back Will Genia took a knock to his head after a tackle and had to leave the field.
The Melbourne side led the scoreboard throughout the match after opening the scoring in the 12th minute when Quade Cooper slipped a pass to Angus Cottrell who was able to run straight through the Sunwolves and score next to the posts.
Cooper converted Cottrell’s try and went on to convert six of the Rebels eight tries.
Marika Koroibete scored the first of his brace two minutes later after Reece Hodge found a gap and sent a long pass out wide to the winger. Cooper converted.
The Rebels were then reduced to 14 players when Matt Philip was judged to have knocked the ball down intentionally in the 21st minute.
From the yellow card the Sunwolves chose a line out but the Rebels defended their line, turned the ball over and worked the ball into the Sunwolves half where they won a penalty. Cooper missed the penalty kick but it mattered little as the Rebels had used up time with a man in the bin.
Almost from the restart the Rebels attacked and another long pass went out to Koroibete who raced for the corner and scores his second in the 28th minute. Cooper was unable to convert which took the half time score to 19-0 in favour of the visitors.
Maddocks scored the first points of the second half in the 52nd minute and four minutes later Koroibete used his pace to beat the Sunwolves backs before setting up his team-mate Haylett-Petty for his try.
It took the Sunwolves 62 minutes to get on to the scoreboard and their only try came from a Haylett-Petty kick that was charged down by Jason Emery who chased the ball, gathered it and went in to score under the posts.
In the final ten minutes of the contest the Rebels opened up and Michael Ruru, Jack Maddocks and Jordan Ulese all crossed to seal a convincing victory for the Rebels.
Next week in Round 16 the Sunwolves host the Brumbies again at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo while the Rebels host the Waratahs at AAMI stadium in Melbourne.
Final Score Sunwolves 7(0) Rebels 52(19)
Scorers
Sunwolves
Tries – J.Emery
Pen –
Con – H.Parker
Drop –
Cards –
Rebels
Tries – A.Cottrell, M.Koroibete 2, J.Maddocks 2, D.Haylett-Petty, M.Ruru, J.Ulese
Pen –
Con – Q.Cooper 6
Drop –
Cards – M. Philip (21st min yellow)
Match Officials
Referee: Nick Briant
Assistant Ref 1:Federico Anselmi
Assistant Ref 2: Shuhei Kubo
TMO :Minoru Fuji
Teams
Sunwolves
15 Jason Emery, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Josh Timu, 12 Phil Burleigh, 11 Semisi Masirewa, 10 Hayden Parker, 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Amanaki Mafi, 7 Dan Pryor, 6 Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco, 5 Luke Thompson, 4 Mark Abbott, 3 Hiroshi Yamashita, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Masataka Mikami
Replacements: 16 Nathan Vella, 17 Pauliasi Manu, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Tom Rowe, 20 Ben Gunter, 21 Jamie Booth, 22 Yu Tamura, 23 Takyua Yamasawa
Rebels
15 Dane Haylett-Petty (c), 14 Jack Maddocks, 13 Reece Hodge, 12 Billy Meakes, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Richard Hardwick, 7 Angus Cottrell, 6 Ross Haylett-Petty, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Matt Philip, 3 Sam Talakai, 2 Hugh Roach, 1 Matt Gibbon
Replacements: 16 Jordan Ulese, 17 Tetera Faulkner, 18 Jermaine Ainsley, 19 Sam Jeffries, 20 Rob Leota, 21 Michael Ruru, 22 Matt To’omua, 23 Tom English