Melbourne’s off-field woes have been reflected in their round one Super Rugby Pacific performance against the ACT Brumbies, crashing to a 30-3 loss.

With the club in administration and their future looking increasingly grim, the Rebels players had hoped to put the drama aside in their first home game of the season at AAMI Park on Friday night.

But a small crowd was left disappointed, with the Brumbies easily maintaining their status as Australia’s benchmark side.

Melbourne had plenty of possession in the first half but let themselves down with loose play and errors while their highly-rated forward pack failed to fire.

They struggled to give the Rebels’ halves Carter Gordon and England international Jack Maunder front-foot ball and lost three of their own line-outs and a further two in the second half.

Brumbies five-eighth Noah Lolesio, who spent the off-season playing with French side Toulon, out-shone Carter in their head-to-head battle, with Melbourne’s World Cup No.10 out of sorts.

In a scrappy showing from both sides, the Brumbies raced to a 17-3 halftime lead with speedster Corey Toole crossing twice.

New Rebels recruit Filipo Daugunu was given a spell in the 26th minute for a dangerous tackle on Brumbies flanker Luke Reimer, while an off-side Brumbies centre Len Ikitau was also given a yellow card after repeated team warnings.

While neither side capitalised on their one-man advantage, the Brumbies were able to push the lead out to 25-3 in the 53rd minute through No.8 Charlie Cale.

Melbourne’s night looked to have grown still worse when star signing Taniela Tupou went down with a hand injury, but the prop managed to recover and play out the match.

Rebels skipper Rob Leota looked to have scored a season-opening try for his team but it was denied after the Television Match Official picked up that Vaiolini Ekuasi had impeded the Brumbies defence. 

Cale then grabbed his second try, lurking on the wing as the ACT stretched the Rebels defence to seal an impressive win.