The Stormers swept past the Rebels 40-3 in their Super Rugby match at AAMI Park to consign Melbourne to their seventh successive loss.

The win means the Cape Town-based Stormers surge to the top of the South African conference and keep on track for the upcoming finals.

The Rebels were hopelessly outclassed by the Springbok-laden visitors, who also beat the Brumbies in Canberra last round and are ranked third in the overall standings.

With their troubled English import Danny Cipriani still on the outer as the club and his management attempt to negotiate a new contract, the Rebels lacked spark in attack and never really looked like crossing the try line.

Cipriani hasn't played since late April when he was stood down for off-field disciplinary breaches.

Melbourne trailed the Stormers 16-3 at halftime, and disappointingly failed to add to that tally in the final 40 minutes.

Rookie Stormers five-eighth Kurt Coleman, who replaced injured Test pivot Peter Grant in the line-up, contributed 18 points to the total, scoring his first try in Super Rugby.

His try came in the 53rd minute after the Rebels defence cracked after some sustained pressure from the visitors.

He converted his own try and when Jaque Fourie touched down three minutes later after a break by fellow Test centre Jean De Villiers, it was game over.

As the Rebels let themselves down with poor restarts, kicking and a mounting error toll, the Stormers grabbed a valuable bonus point when reserve Nick Koster crossed.

De Villiers sealed the result with a try in the 78th minute after a break by back-up hooker Deon Fourie.

The Rebels will now look to their remaining matches against the Brumbies and Force, both who they beat in earlier rounds, for a much-needed win.

They will need to improve with coach Rod Macqueen rating the performance as the most disappointing of the season.

"It was by far and the reason being that as we get towards the end of the season, we're expecting to do better," Macqueen said.

"We need to get some creativity back into our game."

That creativity could come from Cipriani but Macqueen said "one person wasn't going to make a difference to that game".

"At the moment Danny can't be selected so until that's sorted out with the administration we'll be selecting from the players available."

Compounding the misery were leg injuries to two of the Rebels' key players, lock Hugh Pyle and fullback Richard Kingi, which will be assessed at their recovery.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP