Rebels lock Matt Philip believes the side are hungry to rectify last week’s performance as they prepare to return to AAMI Park against the Western Force.
The Rebels last played at home 287 days ago against the Blues, forced on the road during Super Rugby Trans-Tasman due to COVID, adopting Leichhardt Oval as their base.
This has become a common procedure for the Victorian-based club over the past two years, forced to move on countless times with little preparation.
For Philip, it will be his first game in Rebels colours at home since February 2020 after spending last season with French club Pau.
Whilst this in itself is all the motivation needed, last week's 'disappointing' loss to the Reds remains firmly on their minds, eager to rectify that performance.
“It’s an interesting mood. There’s a bit of excitement (about returning home) but also we want to rectify what happened against the Reds,” Philip told reporters.
“We weren’t happy with how we performed as a collective so we want to rectify that.
“I’m excited to get out, I haven’t played at AAMI Park for the Rebels in a long time and getting to play in front of our home fans will be a pretty exciting time."
“It’s huge for us,” flanker Brad Wilkin added. “It’s been close to 300 days since we’ve played at home. We’re big on representing Melbourne and doing it for the city so it’s going to be great to get back to AAMI Park, have fans in the stands and hopefully give them something to cheer about.
“It’s been a tough few years so we’re looking forward to creating some memories at AAMI Park with this group."
The Rebels were below their lofty standards during their 23-5 defeat to the Reds, with Philip especially disappointed in failing to do the 'non-negotiables.'
"Every loss is disappointing but some of the areas where we weren’t good enough around the contact areas, basic skills for me are a mindset thing and not being good at them is disappointing.
“That contact area is a non-negotiable for us, it’s not something we work on every week, we should be able to not have to train that at all and bring that out on the weekend.
“We’ve parked that and are focusing on the structures and details we want to bring to the Force.”
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Philip is confident the side have put the result behind them as they turn their focus to the Force, eager to build momentum for the rest of the season.
“I think we’ve driven the message of what’s happened, happened, dropping your head isn’t going to fix anything, we need to pick ourselves up and go again,” he added.
“Losing round one is never ideal but it’s not the grand final. It’s better to be losing games now than the end of the season.
"We didn’t start as we wanted but we need to accept that, move on and put out a performance that we can look back on and be proud of.”
