Western Force rugby league convert Chance Peni has staked his claim for a spot in the Super Rugby club's backline, starring in their 27-5 trial win over Melbourne on the Gold Coast on Monday night.
Peni scored one try and was particularly dangerous on the right wing, beating the Rebels defence on a number of occasions with his quick footwork at the Bond University ground.
Peni played rugby union as a child before he represented the Junior Kangaroos in the 13-man game, but failed to crack first grade at the Wests Tigers.
In their only trial match ahead of David Wessels' first full season as coach, the Force looked by far the sleeker of the two teams.
They conceded the opening try of the match in the first quarter, but claimed a 15-5 halftime lead and never looked troubled from there.
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Bill Meakes, recruited from Gloucester, also scored in the win, as did Brynard Stander, Luke Morahan and Alex Newsome.
In contrast, the Rebels struggled to build any pressure in attack as they swung from error to error.
New Zealand recruit and potential new fly-half Jackson Garden-Bachop was quiet in his time on the field in the first half, making only one half break.
Meanwhile last year's No.10 Jack Debreczeni had limited chances as the Force dominated the second half, making an error on the attack late in the match.
Scrum-half Nic Stirzaker laid on the only try of the match for the Rebels, firing a quick pass out of the ruck to put Steve Cummins in to score in the opening minute.
The Rebels will play Queensland at Ballymore next Tuesday in the final warm-up match, before they host the Blues in the opening round on February 23.
Rebels coach Tony McGahan said it was hard to gauge Garden-Bachop's performance at fly-half, and his bid for a starting spot, given the team's performance.
"It's pretty hard when you're at No.10 and you're making your debut in Super Rugby and you spend 35 minutes camped in your bottom-30," he said.
Conversely, Wessels said he had seen enough of Peni to be sure he would feature regularly for the Force this season.
"The great thing about him is he just goes 100 per cent. He really flies into everything. He's been a great addition to the squad," Wessels said.
However he said he was still unhappy with the team's performance, despite the win.
"We beat the Hurricanes in the pre-season last year and didn't win a game for a while, so we've got to go really hard at the opportunities we missed out there.
