Pre-season trial games are a notorious case of ‘buyer beware’, but it was hard not to be impressed with what the Brumbies showed in their 50-19 rout of the Melbourne Rebels at Seiffert Oval.

More than 4000 people piled into the Queanbeyan ground best known as the original home of the Canberra Raiders, and left very satisfied with the Brumbies’ eight tries to three display, in a match played over three thirty-minute periods.

Neither side played their Spring Tour Wallabies tourists, while David Pocock and Christian Lealiifano also sat out the game for the Brumbies, having just returned from Japan and Ireland, respectively.

The Rebels had more than a dozen current squad members not playing, including Japanese backrower Amanaki Mafi and former England international lock, Geoff Parling.

New Brumbies recruit Isi Naisarani was barnstorming at No.8 and showed regularly that he will be a handful for defences throughout Super Rugby in 2018.

The former Western Force backrower crossed for a try himself off the back of a scrum and set up another for the Brumbies co-captain Sam Carter early in the match.

Former Waratahs scrumhalf Matt Lucas was another to impress in his first outing in a Brumbies jersey.

“I don’t think we’ll get too far ahead of ourselves, but there were some good passages there, certainly,” Brumbies coach Dan McKellar said post-match.

“We’ve got through it injury-free, and with some really good individual performances, and in terms of how we want to play the game, there were some really good passages there of how we do want to play.

“We want to play fast [in 2018], and that’s how we’ve been training. The big difference here has been going from scrum to lineouts to tackling; you don’t get those live involvements at training.

“We just want to play with tempo and play a good style of footy that’s enjoyable to play and coach, and enjoyable to watch as well.”

Despite the scoreline not going their way, there were plenty of positives for the Melbourne Rebels, too.

“I’m actually happy with quite a lot that happened,” coach Dave Wessels said.

“I really mindful in these games, it’s about putting into practice some of the things you’re wanting to do, and things that you have been working on under live fire, and from that perspective, we’re really happy with some of the performances.

“We made decisions on an individual basis how much game time players would get, or whether they would play at all.

“Guys like Adam Coleman, Amanaki Mafi, Lopeti [Timani], Willie [Genia]… they all played a far bit of rugby at the back end of last year, so it was great to get some extra time and conditioning into some of our young guys.”

The Brumbies looked sharp in attack for the first two ‘thirds’ of the game, with Henry Speight and fullback Andy Muirhead crossing from runaway movements, while hookers Robbie Abel (twice) and Connal McInerney both scored from well-executed driving mauls to remind everyone of their set piece power. Young centre Len Ikitau also scored in the last stanza.

The Rebels scored one try in each period, with winger Kitione Ratu, former Australian Sevens flyer Henry Hutchison, and centre Sione Tuipulotu crossing for five-pointers.

Both sides will now turn their focus on the Brisbane Tens this coming weekend, to played at Lang Park on Friday and Saturday.