Robbie Coleman's first game back with Queanbeyan for the year lasted just 20 minutes against Easts on Saturday afternoon before the Brumbies utility retired with hamstring soreness.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But neither this nor a pitch invasion from confused kangaroos at David Campese Field could stop the demolition from the home side, who ran away to a 70-12 win.
Starting scrum half Mitch Duncan moved back to full-back to replace the injured Coleman and scored a hatrick, which was largely the product of the dynamic fly half Billy Chalker.
The low phase count from poor ball retention did little to stop Chalker's attack artillery; he caught the ball at pace and was relentless with forcing expansive waves of offence as his side piled on 11 tries.
Coach Adam Fahey was clearly impressed, saying Chalker's best game of the season was "excellent".
But the coach's highest praise was reserved for captain and flanker Dan Penca, who bulldozed through the line.
"He was outstanding today. First half he got a couple of turnovers. His ball running was good and he has great leadership as well with a 'do as a I do boys, follow me' [style]," Fahey said. "He's got an NRC program coming up, so it's great to see him in form at the right end of the season.
"We wanted to throw the ball around a lot more today. No disrespect to our opposition, it's just something we wanted to have a look at, just to have another string in our bow come the end of the season."
Queanbeyan are firmly positioned at the top end of the ladder with just three rounds remaining before finals, but it is a different story for a winless and frustrated Easts coach John Ross.
"We've got guys that can play some footy, but they're just not putting it together and then, when things go bad, they just compound errors," Ross said.
"They haven't quite learned to get past errors and move on when they happen, but that's been the story of our season all year. We can play footy for a period of time, and we're in the game, and then we clock off for whatever reason."
Easts began to argue and bicker among themselves when their opposition started scoring heavily, which Ross attributed to the inexperience of the team.
"Sometimes people look externally instead of internally. There is a little bit of that [arguing between teammates], and it's OK when I'm there or we've got a good leadership to run and control that, but it can get out of hand as a group," he said.
At a glance
Gungahlin 19 def Royals 17
Tuggeranong 64 def Wests 20
Queanbeyan 70 def Easts 12
Uni-Norths bye
