12:00a.m. 20th July 2008

| By Nathan Woulfe

Pick any Premier Rugby team and put them on the park against Sunnybank.

Chances are, you’ll wind up with a score similar to the Stingrays’ 73-14 loss yesterday afternoon.

Such is the class of the Sunnybank outfit – this is the side that won last year’s grand final 85-19.

A quick glance over the scoresheet from yesterday’s match further highlights the quality of the squad – blokes like Oli Avei, Junior Sovala, Ben Lucas, Albert Anae – all play for the Queensland Reds, or are at least Reds Academy players.

Then there’s Digby Ioane and Greg Holmes. Wallabies.

So much quality, all over the park, that several Reds Academy players started from the bench.

Just the same, it’s no fun for any side to receive a walloping of these proportions, nor is it for the coach – Glen Panoho, in this case.

“It was a long day at the office for me, I lost my sense of humour pretty quickly,” Panoho said.

Regardless, it wasn’t all one-way, at least not initially.

Scores were locked 7-all midway through the first half, before the Sunnybank machine lubed up and roared to life.

Winger Ioane dominated in the backline, with half of the Dragons’ tries coming from backline movements started in the midfield.

Despite the rapidly-rising score, the Stingrays still fought back for a second-half try to captain Charles Wyllie.

Panoho said the match highlighted just how far ahead of the rest of the competition Sunnybank is.

“I take my hat off to them, they were outstanding, class all over the field,” he said.

“Without trying to find excuses, that was by far the best side we’ve met all year, no doubt.”

Compounding the Stingrays’ woes was the loss of powerhouse prop Shon Siemonek with a calf injury after 10 minutes, before flyhalf Nathan Williams joined him on the casualty list 10 minutes later.

Forgetting the scoreline, Panoho said there were still positives in his side’s performance.

“We gave them far too much respect in the backs, but our lineouts and scrums were very strong,” he said.

“It was a massive learning curve.”

The Stingrays have one Premier Rugby match remaining for the season, against Souths next week.

Panoho said it was crucial for his side to forget this round and regroup to close the season out on a positive.

“We really want to bounce back next week and put this behind us,” he said.

“We just have to acknowledge (Sunnybank) were a class above – that said, our boys didn’t throw the towel in.”