Most John I Dent Cup teams dread the trip to Nicholls Enclosed. The icy wind cuts straight to the bone, it's hostile and the Gungahlin Eagles rarely lose on home turf.
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But 'The Nest' was eerily calm, balmy and silent on Saturday when a bunch of kids from Queanbeyan shocked the competition and announced themselves as finals contenders.
The Whites stunned the Eagles with a powerplay few some coming, going on a second-half rampage to win 36-21 in Canberra's first-grade competition.
The bulk of the Whites squad is made up of players who should still be in the under-20s competition and almost everyone else is 23 or younger.
They were thrashed by the Tuggeranong Vikings 45-7 in round one, convincing those on the outside that this was a Queanbeyan rebuilding year.
"That was unreal," said coach Sam French. "It was impressive, but I feel like we're the only ones who aren't surprised.
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"Everyone has been writing us off saying we were young, we were rebuilding and we had an ordinary trial match then didn't turn up [against Tuggeranong].
"But that's the sort of performance we have in us. I wouldn't swap any of them from 1-15. There's at least five colts in there and everyone off the bench as well. We've got Jamie Marmont, who's 32, and the rest are about 23 or younger."
Led by former Australian juniors Zeph Tuinona and Justin Skimeti, the young Whites were the first to score when Jackson Stuart - the son of Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart - crossed in the opening minutes.
But the Eagles boast a formidable side and many are tipping this year as the one they'll snap their 17-year premiership drought.
Powerhouse No. 8 Tamati Ioane powered his way over and former Brumby James Dargaville followed to give the Eagles the lead.
Instead of rolling over, the Whites muscled up despite their youth. They man-handled their older opponents, Tuinona was superb around the field and Sikimeti went toe-to-toe with Ioane to spark a 29-point scoring spree.
"I've been saying to them we can do it, we just needed to believe in ourselves and you saw that today," French said.
The Whites' win has set the stage for a tight battle for finals spots in a coronavirus-shortened season this year.
The Uni-Norths Owls and Vikings are undefeated, but every other team feels like it has a premiership sniff this year.
The Eagles will rally despite their Queanbeyan disappointment. They played 20 minutes of the second half with 13 men after Ioane and Tayn Atkins were sent to the sin bin for high tackles.
"They came out in the second half more energetic than us. Losing those guys wasn't ideal, but we can't take anything away from [the Whites]," said Eagles coach Marco Caputo.
"They out-enthused us. They had a bit more fizz around getting off the ground earlier than we did, forced us into errors and some of our options weren't the best.
"We need to look at that and work out how to do that better next time. It's a short sprint this season."
AT A GLANCE
First grade: QUEANBEYAN WHITES 36 (Jackson Stuart, Zane Marolt, Zeph Tuinona, Brendan Jimenez, Jamie Marmont tries; Brendan Jimenez 3, George Morseu conversions) bt GUNGAHLIN EAGLES 21 (James Dargaville 2, Tamati Ioane tries; Joey Caputo 3 conversions); UNI-NORTHS OWLS 32 bt WESTS 29; TUGGERANONG VIKINGS 34 bt ROYALS 26.
Women: ROYALS 29 bt TUGGERANONG VIQUEENS 7; WESTS 5 bt UNI-NORTHS OWLS 0