Ranger touched down in the second and 13th minutes and All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko scored in the 18th as the Blues took a 17-3 lead before the Rebels rallied to cut the margin to 23-17 at halftime.
The Blues targeted former England flyhalf Danny Cipriani and center Cooper Vuna as weak links in the Rebels’ defense and proved their strategy by running three first-half tries through those players.
Cipriani made up for his defensive lapses by kicking five goals from five attempts: slotting three penalties and converting tries by Cooper Vuna and Lachie Mitchell.
The Blues benched regular goalkicker Luke McAlister on Friday and regretted it when flyhalf Stephen Brett managed only three goals from eight attempts in his absence.
Former All Blacks flyhalf McAlister, who has signed to play for the French club Toulouse after this year’s World Cup, replaced Brett after only 50 minutes and kicked a conversion from two attempts.
The Blues almost duplicated their performance of last week when they scored five first-half tries to lead the New South Wales Waratahs 31-7 before fading and being held scoreless in the second half. On Friday, they again opened a clear early lead before losing their momentum and being forced to struggle through the middle of the game.
Second-half tries to centers Benson Stanley and Jared Payne and to flanker Luke Braid clinched the win and a four-try bonus point for Auckland who posted their seventh win from nine games.
The Rebels trailed by only five points with 10 minutes remaining before allowing tries to Payne and Braid which consigned them to their sixth loss from nine matches.
Blues captain Keven Mealamu admitted his team’s performance fell short of the standard they had hoped for. After opening a substantial early lead, Auckland lost its way through the middle 40 minutes of the match before finishing strongly and making its win emphatic.
“I just think the little errors cost us,” Mealamu said. “In games like this, you’ve got to build pressure and with those little errors we turned the ball over to them and that wasn’t the way we wanted to play today.”
Ranger scored after only two minutes, beating Cipriani and three other defenders in a powerful run down the left flank. The same flank was left exposed when halfback Albie Mathewson kicked behind the defense in the 13th minute and Ranger won the race to the ball over Melbourne’s goal line.
Rokocoko scored five minutes later and Auckland had a 17-3 lead but, as was the case against the Waratahs, their grip on the game weakened. Vuna scored in the 21st miute and Mitchell in the 27th as the Rebels battled back into the match.
Stanley’s try clinched a four-try bonus point after 48 minutes and, although Cipriani cut the margin with two penalties, Auckland was able to expand its lead with tries to Payne and Braid in the last five minutes.
“We were in that game for possibly 40 or 50 minutes,” Rebels captain Stirling Mortlock said. “Obviously, the first 20 minutes we couldn’t get in the game but the next 50 minutes we were pretty competitive. Disappointing the way we finished up though.”
Auckland 40 (Rene Ranger 2, Luke Braid, Jared Payne, Joe Rokocoko, Benson Stanley tries; Stephen Brett, Luke McAlister conversions, Brett 2 penalties), Melbourne 23 (Lachlan Mitchell, Cooper Vuna tries; Danny Cipriani 2 conversions, 3 penalties). HT: 23-17.
