George Gregan returned to his inspirational best at Canberra Stadium inspiring the Brumbies to a 53-20 comprehensive Super 14 victory over the Cheetahs.

The Brumbies seven tries to two win secured the homeside its second bonus point of the season as they moved to third on the ladder equal with the Hurricanes who had a bye this weekend.

After taking a slender 18-13 lead at the halftime break the Brumbies piled on five tries to the Cheetahs' one in a lopsided second half.

Gregan was inspirational throughout the match and directed the Brumbies' attack with a combination of clever running and sublime offloads.

He broke through for the game's second try after he fooled the Cheetahs with a dummy and sliced through some weak defence to score under the posts.

After the break he continued to dominate the match and brought the house down with a 30 metre midfield run in the 45th minute that ended just 15m shy of the line.

The Brumbies quickly spun the ball to flyhalf Stephen Larkham who funneled a perfect grubber into the edge of the in-goal area where winger Mark Gerrard crashed onto the ball and finished off the game's best passage of play.

From there on it was all Brumbies who ended up scoring seven tries to the Cheetahs' two.

Hooker Jeremy Paul was in the thick of the things and scored two in his comeback match with flanker George Smith and winger Clyde Rathbone also cashing in on the Cheetahs defence.

Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher paid tribute to Wallabies skipper Gregan.

"I thought Gregan's effort around the ruck base was superb," Fishers said.

"He had options. He took the ball forward and I think this was a watershed game for him as well.

He said the Brumbies' trademark brand of attacking rugby was back after injury disruptions in the past couple of seasons.

"Historically the Brumbies are a team that likes to score tries and for the last two years we have been battling away.

"So I think the pleasure that the guys will get out of scoring seven tries, and the confidence that will grow out of that will hopefully be portentous for us in the weeks to come."

Fisher said centre Matt Giteau wasn't still suffering the effects of a niggling knee injury he sustained at the Commonwealth Games, despite him limping at various stages throughout the match.

"He'll probably need to play with just a bit more protection, I think," Fisher said.

Man of the match Stephen Larkham agreed the Brumbies were pleased to be back playing running rugby.

"We came out there very focused and I think you could see from the outset that we were willing to run the ball," he said.

"We found a lot of opportunities out there and tonight we capitalised on them whereas in previous weeks I think we've let ourselves down in that situation.

"We were very pleased with the way we ran away with it in the end and whilst we've still got a little bit of work to do we are very happy with that.

Larkham said the side was already thinking about next week's all-Aussie blockbuster against the NSW Waratahs.

"It's going to be a very difficult week this week. New South Wales are running hot at the moment but I think we are going to get a lot of confidence out of that game."

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