Canberra - The Brumbies moved to the top of the Australian Super Rugby conference with a 37-6 demolition of the Rebels on Saturday.

The Brumbies scored five tries against a woeful Rebels side, whose only points came from two penalties in the first half.

The bonus point win allowed the Brumbies to leapfrog the Waratahs and Reds as the leading Australian team and kept them in contention to finish in the top two and host a semi-final.

They were far too strong for a disappointing Rebels outfit, who were a shadow of the team that overwhelmed the Blues the week before.

Under new coach Jake White, the young Brumbies players recovered well from their recent loss to the Reds and were never threatened by the visitors from Melbourne.

"We weren't happy the way we played last week," Brumbies captain Ben Mowen said.

"The training during the week was good and obviously the first 40 minutes tonight laid the platform."

The Brumbies dominated territory and possession from the outset and were rewarded with two Christian Lealiifano penalties in the opening 10 minutes.

The Rebels hardly touched the ball in the early stages but they struck back after 15 minutes with a massive 53 metre penalty from Danny Cipriani.

But the Brumbies responded immediately when inside centre Pat McCabe brushed aside fellow Wallaby James O'Connor to score under the posts.

O'Connor replied with a penalty, only for the Brumbies to seize control with tries for flanker Michael Hooper and lock Scott Fardy, both coming from sloppy defending around the edge of the rucks.

Things went from bad to worse for the Rebels when skipper Gareth Delve was shown the yellow card for persistent offences.

During his 10 minutes off the field the Brumbies scored a fourth try when Mowen steamed onto an inside ball from McCabe to touch down beside the posts.

The Rebels were far more committed in the second half and tried hard to break down the Brumbies defence, but a series of unforced errors continually handed the advantage back to the home side.

The Brumbies absorbed everything the Rebels threw at them, then had the final say when Fardy crashed over for his second try.

"We just weren't at the races - the first 30 minutes especially we just didn't get off the line," Delve said.

"We didn't make our tackles, which we had talked about all week, and the Brumbies just kept coming at us.

"No excuses, tonight we just didn't come out and implement what we'd put in place."

Scorers:

Brumbies:

Tries: Scott Fardy (2), Pat McCabe, Michael Hooper, Ben Mowen.

Conversions: Christian Lealiifano (3).

Penalties: Lealiifano (2)

Rebels:

Penalties: Danny Cipriani, James O'Connor

Teams:

Brumbies:
15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Joe Tomane, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Henry Speight, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Fotu Auelua, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Ben Mowen, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Scott Fardy, 3 Dan Palmer, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Ruaidhri Murphy

Substitutes: 16 Anthony Hegarty, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Peter Kimlin, 19 Ita Vaea, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Robbie Coleman, 22 Andrew Smith.

Rebels:
15. Kurtley Beale, 14. Lachlan Mitchell, 13. Mitch Inman, 12. James O'Connor, 11. Mark Gerrard, 10. Daniel Cipriani, 9. Nick Phipps, 8. Gareth Delve (captain), 7. Jarrod Saffy, 6. Luke Jones, 5. Hugh Pyle, 4. Alister Campbell, 3. Rodney Blake, 2. Ged Robinson, 1. Nic Henderson

Substitutes: 16. Luke Holmes, 17. Eddie Aholelei, 18. Michael Lipman, 19. Tim Davidson, 20. Richard Kingi, 21. Julian Huxley, 22. Lloyd Johansson