History was made last Saturday at Orrong Park as allocated Rebels’ Luke Burgess, Cam Crawford, Jordy Reid and Telusa Veainu represented Melbourne. While Ben Meehan and Radike Samo were in action for Box Hill.

The Unicorns suffered a disappointing 1-point loss to Box Hill in the last seconds of Saturday’s first home match.

The Unicorns remain without a win in 2015, after drawing their first round match against Foostcray and having a bye in Round Two. While 2014 defending champions Box Hill were given their biggest fright yet, but remain second on the Direct Connect Dewar Shield table.

Melbourne Unicorns’ Head Coach Anare Koliavu found many positives amongst the defeat.

“Our boys wanted to make a statement that we could play Rugby and play well, and the boys did some really good things and put a lot of pressure on Box Hill; in the end the result just didn’t go our way,” he said.

“The boys are gaining confidence and learning to play with each other, and it was a big improvement from our first game and after 2 weeks break. We are still learning the combinations of different players and we probably pushed that one pass too many (a few times); we should have regrouped and possibly played territory better. The Rebels boys played well as usual, and it was great to get Luke Burgess playing for us.”

His Box Hill counterpart Andrew Slyfield was impressed with his side’s ability to hold out Rebel fliers Cam Crawford and Telusa Veainu.

“I was pleased with our ability to limit their opportunities out wide, as Telusa and Cam were a constant threat,” Slyfield said. “For us, Rebels Ben Meehan and Radike Samo scored at important times in the match, and Michael Thompson has continued his fine form off the tee which is so important in close matches. I was also happy with the impact of Joe Cousens and Joe Baleilovu off the bench.

“It was a tough physical game where the lead changed a number of times, and we struggled in contact to quick ball on attack; this didn’t allow us to get any momentum, and they made life difficult for us on defence as they had a number of strong ball carriers. We learnt a lot from the match and were lucky enough to come away with five points.”

Melbourne 31

Tries – Albert Aiopolutea, Cam Crawford, Meli Koliavu, George Symonds

Conversions – Mika Faa’masilli (2), Paul McConnichie (2)

Penalties – Mika Faa’masilli

Box Hill 32

Source: Rebels Media Unit

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