Wanganui reserve No8 Ranato Tikoisolomone takes the ball off the scrum against Canterbury on Wednesday night.
It really was the Whanganui's players night - the problem was they were wearing red and black jersey's.
The depth of rugby prowess in the Canterbury region was on full show at AMI Stadium on Wednesday evening, as what was arguably their third-string team dominated the Ranfurly Shield clash from go to woe with a lethal line-out, unstoppable waves at the set piece and swift execution out wide - scoring ten tries to one in the 71-5 shut out.
It would be unfair to heap criticism on an amateur Steelform Wanganui team playing their third straight midweek clash against a professional outfit, on top of Saturday club commitments, and under lights on a cool South Island evening.
Ironically, it was their former brethren doing the damage amongst a home side with 10 debutantes, as new Canterbury skipper Jack Stratton, the son and grandson of Wanganui rugby legends, turned in a virtuoso performance.
Halfback Stratton ran the entire game for 53 straight minutes, playing behind a forward pack where veteran locks Mitchell Dunshea and Hamish Dalzell destroyed the Wanganui set-piece by pinching their line-out throws, turning basic ruck recycling into a heavy grind and carving off big metres with ball in hand.
It meant Stratton's Lincoln team mate Brett Cameron, still playing cricket at Victoria Park last summer, was able to ease into the first-five role and impressed when taking on the line, while bringing his goal kicking boots as he nailed eight from 10 for a 17-point haul.
Out wide, Wanganui's former Meads Cup-winner Poasa Waqanibau held sway, providing some lovely offloads to lay on two tries while scoring one himself close to the line when Wanganui hacked away a loose scrum ball.
Being stuck near their tryline was always an issue as Wanganui were ground down by clinical technique and superior execution - even some of their best ball runners were sent sideways in tackles instead of making the advantage line.
Completing a good night for the expat quartet was Jonathan Osborne, who came on for the last 20 minutes to continue the superior pick-and-drive of the Canterbury loose forwards.
The home team's other standouts were double try-scoring hooker Nick Werahiko and perpetual motion fullback Mark Maitland.
Wanganui were outmatched with the exceptions of a brief eight-phase attack in the final quarter and the period right before halftime when they got a couple of penalties to set up a good chance for big second-five Timoci Seruwalu to throw the dummy and reach out to score in the same fashion he did against Hurricanes Development.
Ultimately, the challengers were as competitive as they were allowed to be, while still managing to halt Canterbury scoring at a point-a-minute and remaining well under the record scoreline against them in Shield rugby of 86-3 by Waikato in 2000.
Prop Viki Tofa contested everything but was unlucky to mistime his tackle on falling Canterbury flanker Billy Harmon - earning a yellow card for shoulder contact with the head.
Seruwalu was the one Wanganui player who could match the Cantabrians physically, while in the pack lock Sam Madams and retiring legend Peter Rowe tried to hold back the tide.
Reserve No8 Ranato Tikoisolomone impressed in his 20 minute stint.
Stratton was proud to have guided a Crusader-less side to the first Shield defence of the season.
"It's a pretty young group.
"We came together six weeks ago from the best club players in Christchurch and we tried to put a good team together and a performance we'd be proud of."
Keeping the captaincy reins, in what could become a permanent appointment, Wanganui skipper Cole Baldwin told Sky Sport there was little more his team could have done.
"We dug pretty deep, we tried hard, but at the end of the day they were just too good for us.
"They had some good backs and we were trying to stay away from them - just go straight up the middle - we made some good yards at times.
"We wanted to use our backline, but to be fair we didn't have a hell of a lot of ball to do anything with.
"It's been tough, we've been playing two games every week for the last almost-month now.
"It's good to get it out of the way now and concentrate on our club season for the next six weeks."
Wanganui coach Jason Caskey could only marvel at the never-ceasing quality coming off the Canterbury production line, even if that involved imported talent from his own backyard.
"They definitely keep rolling them out. Pretty impressive.
"It would be nice to have players of that ability, but it's part and parcel of the game now.
"The [Canterbury] line-out was bloody outstanding, just the speed that they get in the air.
"In tight, they were picking us off left, right and centre.
"When they're winning their ball and half our share, makes it hard work."
Canterbury 71 (N Werahiko 2, J Stratton, M Maitland, M Dunshea, M Suckling, S Walfield, D Nel, P Waqanibau, C Makene tries; B Cameron pen, 7 con, F Strawbridge 2 con) bt Wanganui 5 (T Seruwalu try). HT: 36-5.