Armstrong came into the side to replace Chris Martin, who is heading overseas on travel, and made the most of his opportunity.

“Patty has played a little bit of first grade before, but predominantly second grade,” Blacks co-coach Mick Hickling said.

“We had a couple of guys unavailable with Chris Martin heading off overseas and our fullback Chris Logan away with NSW Country duties so he had a chance to start this week and did a great job.

“He got players’ player and the three points from the coaches as well.

“It makes it a selection decision for the coaches next week, which is good.”

The Blacks outside backs scored all but two of the tries, with second-rower Travis Brooke scoring a double.

“Rob Willamson (winger) got three, we had a couple of reserve wingers go on and score tries.

“Most of the tries were shared by our centres and backs. Travis scored two but he was the only forward to score.

“They played relatively solid footy through the middle but once we got it two or three passes wide we had plenty of space for ourselves.”

Hickling said while not too much could be read into the win, they had achieved all their goals from the day.

“It was about getting the win first up and then improving our for and against,” he said.

“You try and play as much to the structure that you’ve put in place, but it can be difficult in those sort of matches because you have so much space on the edges there is a tendency to hit the edges straight away.

“Not a great deal we can take away from it other than we played well, found space outside, scored our tries and no injuries.”

The Blacks were without Logan and second-rower Ben Wood, who was away on Country Colts duties with Isaac Ulberg.

They will be back for next week’s away game against Wanderers, with fourth spot on the ladder up for grabs 

“It will be a massive game next week against Wanderers. If we win we will leapfrog them and put us in a  good spot,” Hickling said.

“Chris Logan is back next week, he will play the Wanderers game but miss the one after that. Ben Wood is the same.