Nineteen-year-old rookie Liam Shaw scored a hat-trick on his first-grade debut as the Royals beat Wests 54-14 on Saturday.

It took just two minutes for the winger to claim his maiden try and kick the Royals off to a flying start.

Shaw starred again in the 19^th minute as he chased down a long bomb from the opposite end of the field. The talented teenager flew straight through two dormant defenders to score his second try.

"What a great way to start your first grade career," Royals coach Wayne Southwell said. "He looks about 10 but he's certainly under-19. He was fantastic."

The match was over by half-time as Royals raced to a 35-point lead.

But the wounded Lions came clawing back in the second half as Allan Wrattan bolted down the left sideline to fall a metre short of the tryline. The Lions capitalised on the momentum as Liam Rasch broke through and scored in the next play.

"To the Lions' credit, they responded really well," Southwell said.

"We lost track of what we were about in terms of shape, but they certainly had a lot of ball and did well with it. It's about respect for the opposition as well and we learned from that."

But the comeback was short-lived as the Royals responded with a Lincoln Smith try and Shaw's third

"We got away focus-wise on what we needed to do in that second half," Southwell said.

"It was good that we responded towards the back end of that, that was more important than the first half. It was nice to come away with some good points."

JOHN I DENT CUP

Saturday: Gungahlin Eagles 40 bt Queanbeyan Whites 24; Canberra Royals 54 bt Western Districts Lions 14; Tuggeranong Vikings 29 bt Uni-Norths Owls 20.