 David Wessels was appointed the new coach, moving from the Force, and major signings were made in Australian international scrum-half Will Genia, Australian international lock Adam Coleman and former England and British and Irish Lion Geoff Parling.On the field the Rebels made a significant improvement winning 4 of their first 5 matches, although they would only win 3 more narrowly missing out of their first appearance in the Super Rugby playoffs.Jack Maddocks finished the season as the Rebels top try scorer with 9 tries, including the first ever Rebels hat-trick in Week 3 against the Sunwolves, while Reece Hodge overtook Jason Woodward as the Rebels leading points scorer, with his 117 points in the season putting him on 298 points total for the Rebels.