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Cape Town - The impressive Melbourne Rebels outclassed Japan's Sunwolves 42-15 in Melbourne with Reece Hodge getting a treble and Quade Cooper booting six goals to keep them top of the Australian conference.
As it happened: Rebels v Sunwolves
The Rebels quickly got on the scoreboard with Hodge barrelling over after an offload from Will Genia.
He got his second on 15 minutes after Tom English weaved through a defensive gap and set teammate up for an easy sprint to the line.
A Cooper grubber kick out of a scrum was chased down by Billy Meekes for try No 3.
The Sunwolves pulled one back on the half-hour when Ryohei Yamanaka, a three-try hero in their upset win over the Waratahs last week, shrugged off a Jack Maddocks tackle and swallow-dived over.
But Cooper sent his team into half-time with a 28-8 lead by dotting down after some quality lead-up work from Genia and Hodge.
Yamanaka got his second after dodging past three defenders before Hodge grabbed his third on a charge down and Genia wrapped it up with the team's sixth try 13 minutes before the siren.
Teams:
Rebels
Tries: Reece Hodge (3), Billy Meakes, Quade Cooper, Will Genia
Conversion: Cooper (6)
Sunwolves
Tries: Semisi Masirewa (2)
Conversion: Hayden Parker
Penalty: Parker
Teams:
Rebels
15 Reece Hodge, 14 Jack Maddocks, 13 Tom English, 12 Billy Meakes, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Isi Naisarani, 7 Angus Cottrell (captain), 6 Luke Jones, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Matt Philip, 3 Jermaine Ainsley, 2 Anaru Rangi, 1 Tetera Faulkner
Substitutes: 16 Hugh Roach, 17 Matt Gibbon, 18 Pone Fa’amausili, 19 Ross Haylett-Petty, 20 Rob Leota, 21 Michael Ruru, 22 Campbell Magnay, 23 Semisi Tupou
Sunwolves
15 Ryohei Yamanaka, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jason Emery, 12 Harumichi Tatekawa, 11 Semisi Masirewa, 10 Hayden Parker, 9 Keito Shigeno, 8 Hendrik Tui, 7 Dan Pryor (captain), 6 Ben Gunter, 5 Luke Thompson, 4 Mark Abbott, 3 Jiwon Koo, 2 Jaba Bregavadze, 1 Pauliasi Manu.
Substitutes: 16 Nathan Vella, 17 Masataka Mikami, 18 Hiroshi Yamashita, 19 Uwe Helu, 20 Grant Hattingh, 21 Jamie Booth, 22 Takuya Yamasawa, 23 Josh Timu
