The Pirates backs sliced the Brumbies apart, with Scarth and inside centre Andrew Mepham both bagging three in a 65-5 domination.

The signs were ominous for the Brumbies when, only a couple of minutes in, Jake Douglas spun his way out of a tackle and 50m later Scarth had his first.

Mepham got in on the action a couple of minutes later after a strong tackle from Douglas forced a knock-on from the Brumbies as they chanced their arm from inside their 22.

Pirates had the bonus point by midway through the first half, the pace they played with  and power and elusiveness of their backs too much for the Brumbies to handle.

The Brumbies eventually got on the board with around 15 minutes to go with a spectacular length-of-the-field effort.

It came from a steal straight out of Pirates’ second-rower Tony O’Connor’s grasp.

Not deterred by their earlier unsuccessful attempt, the Brumbies spread it wide and created an overlap, and winger Andy Harris did the rest.

Pirates were quick to wrest back control, with Scarth crossing for his third.

Fellow U18 Harrison Petit celebrated his first try in first grade not long after, a penalty on half-time to James Trappel making it 39-5 at the break and putting Pirates well in control.

Stand-in coach Conrad Starr said it was again good in patches, although those patches were probably more prevalent than they have been.

“A couple of times we went away from the patterns we set ourselves,” he said. “We need to make sure we stick to our patterns for 80 minutes.”

The backs scored all 10 tries and their form was encouraging.

“With a bit of time and space they showed what they are capable of,” Starr said.

In saying that, they probably won’t get that same time and space from here on in.

Starr said it was hard to really glean too much, with the Brumbies not offering the same challenge as the sides they will face in the coming weeks will, but thought there were some areas they were better in.

The breakdown, for one, is improving although there is still plenty of work to do.

“We’re definitely taking more steps,” he said.

“Our speed of ball to the backs is improving too. We’re getting the channel clear and getting the ball to the 10 when he can be creative.”

Jake Hartmann was good at 10 and also finished with a double, while Mepham had his best game.

“He looked a lot more comfortable,” Starr said.

Scarth, too, was hard to ignore with his three tries making his starting debut.

“He’s a talented little football player,” Starr said.

Brumbies coach Ben Nicholson said they just missed too many tackles.

“A lot of one-on-one stuff didn’t go right,” he said.

You can’t afford that, especially when you’re playing catch-up footy from early on as they were.

“They were better drilled than we were,” he said.

It didn’t help either that it was the ninth different team they’ve fielded.

They did have some bright moments and Nicholson thought their last 20 and the middle to last third of the first half was good.

He was also pretty happy with their set plays and felt they were best served by Richard Thew, Dale Robinson and Zac Rahn.