After 57 minutes, with the home side scoring at more than a point a minute, time was called on the slaughter with the Bulldogs sitting on an even 100 points and staring at the genuine possibility that they could top 150.

After hooker Alex Weal crossed for his third try of the match to make it 100-0, Bulldogs coach Murray Hooper extended a welcome olive branch to his counterpart Paul Hausia and offered to pull stumps.

Even for home fans, it was probably the best thing that could have happened.

The winless Rhinos copped a similar belting in second grade (104-0) but the majority of that side backed up to play firsts, and a further handful had even played third grade.

As a result, the victory was a foregone conclusion.

Hooper was gracious afterwards and praised the Rhinos for their commitment to the competition.

“Firstly I would just like to thank the Dubbo boys for making the effort to come over here and field all grades, some of them played three games just to make sure that they filled their commitment to keeping four teams on the paddock and I have to commend them for that,” he said.

“Many other occasions have seen clubs – I won’t name them – just decide they aren’t going to field a third grade side or whatever, but these guys made the effort to do it.

“We’re happy with the way it finished, I’m happy we stayed with our structures and didn’t try and turn it into a sevens game and I’m happy that when the Rhinos started to get into the niggle a bit – which I don’t blame them for at all given the circumstances – we stayed out of it.”

The signs were ominous early when winger Tim Kaufusi scored the first two tries of the match inside the opening five minutes.

Prop Chris Plunkett scored his side’s third and the possibility of triple figures was a real one when they led 31-0 after 16 minutes.

Plunkett scored a hat-trick and with the score at 73-0 at half-time the only interest remaining was the size of victory.

The first time the Rhinos touched the ball was in the 20th minute but they kicked immediately without absorbing a single phase and watched as a try came two phases later.

The Dubbo team were unable to complete consecutive phases in possession for the entirety of the match.

Hausia commended his players afterwards for showing the commitment to be there while others had declined to make the trip, and with Rhinos’ colts and third grade sides actually travelling well, he says there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“It is always good to play against quality sides even when you lose heavily because you learn,” he said.

“I played footy with Dubbo ’Roos in the past and they always had big sides, and Bathurst has a side like that at the moment, big and strong and fast and it is hard to compete against that. I was hoping that when we did have the ball we’d be able to turn their big players around but they were always first to the ball and pressuring us.

“We knew we would struggle in the top two grades this year because of the big lack of experience, but we knew we’d have a strong colts team and that is something we can build on in the future.”

BATHURST BULLDOGS 100 (Chris Plunkett 3, Alex Weal 3, Tim Kaufusi 2, Jordan Bull, Chris Porter, Paul Miller, Andrew Gray, Jono Cody, Isaac Breen, Adam Dwyer, Dane Fitzpatrick tries; Mitch Lavelle 9 conversions, Dane Fitzpatrick conversion) defeated DUBBO RHINOS 0