Fired-up Force crush Rebels

The Force scored four tries in the first 26 minutes of their match against the Rebels in Perth before running out 32-7 winners.

Everything went the Force's way early on.

Alby Mathewson scurried through a gap on the blindside of the Rebels' defence to hand the hosts the early impetus. Then Luke Morahan followed it up in the far corner after Tom Kingston spilled a high ball, Kyle Godwin gathering before Jayden Hayward released the Wallabies flyer for a simple run-in.

A surprising lead then just became bizarre. First, Matt Hodgson scored on his 100th appearance. Then Angus Cottrell, supplied by a beautiful offload from Junior Rasolea, wrapped up the try bonus point to make it 32-0.

The new aim was for the Force to keep an opponent scoreless for the first time.

It didn't happen thanks to Telusa Veainu's 80th-minute consolation try on the end of a Bryce Hegarty grubber, but the Force fans won't have cared.

Force – Tries: Alby Mathewson, Luke Morahan, Matt Hodgson, Angus Cottrell. Conversions: Sias Ebersohn (3). Penalties: Ebersohn (2).
Rebels – Try: Telusa Veainu. Conversion: Bryce Hegarty.

Force – 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Luke Morahan, 13 Junior Rasolea, 12 Kyle Godwin, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Matt Hodgson (c), 6 Angus Cottrell, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Sam Wykes, 3 Kieran Longbottom, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Pek Cowan.
Subs: 16 Heath Tessmann, 17 Tetera Faulkner, 18 Ollie Hoskins, 19 Adam Coleman, 20 Brynard Stander, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Zack Holmes, 23 Marcel Brache.

Rebels – 15 Jason Woodward, 14 Tom Kingston, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Mitch Inman, 11 Tom English, 10 Angus Roberts, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Scott Higginbotham (c), 7 Colby Fainga'a, 6 Sean McMahon, 5 Cadeyrn Neville, 4 Hugh Pyle, 3 Paul Alo-Emile, 2 Pat Leafa, 1 Max Lahiff.
Subs: 16 Shota Horie, 17 Toby Smith, 18 Laurie Weeks, 19 Luke Jones, 20 Lopeti Timani, 21 Ben Meehan, 22 Bryce Hegarty, 23 Lachlan Mitchell.

Photo: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Post by