Kangaroos open new Group Nine season with grand final revenge on Tumut

Kangaroos backrower Harry Stewart looks to split the Tumut defence in the round one Group Nine game at Equex Centre on Saturday. Picture by Les Smith

KANGAROOS kicked off their Group Nine campaign in the best possible fashion by exacting some revenge on Tumut on Saturday.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Kangaroos flyer Jake Mascini and returning full-back Jake Dooley both crossed for doubles in the 34-6 victory over Tumut at Equex Centre.

Kangaroos worked to a handy half-time lead and were never troubled as the kept the Blues scoreless in the second half on the way to a commanding round one victory.

Kangaroos coach Nathan Rose was happy enough with the performance to start the year.

"It was just good to come away with a win to start the season off," Rose said.

"We showed a lot of positive signs but we had a couple of little lapses throughout the game as well.

"We'll look to fix that as we move on through the season."

While not thrilled with the lapses, Rose was happy that most of his team's errors came about through trying to put more points on the board.

"A couple of our errors in that first half, they were positive errors. Try-scoring opportunities," he said.

"But we need to be better in those situations to make sure we're icing those moments but I think if we can do that, we're putting ourselves in a good spot."

It was a new-look Tumut team after they lost nine starters from their premiership side over the off-season.

While Kangaroos put on seven tries to one in the first game since Tumut's come-from-behind grand final win, Rose wasn't about to dig the boot in.

Pictures by Les Smith

"They were still strong for the full game, they've just got a fairly new team obviously so they might take however many games before they've worked out each other's game but I'm sure they will improve as the year goes on," he said.

While Mascini and Dooley crossed for doubles, Rose, Ned Cooper and Zeik Foster, in his first game back at Kangaroos, all crossed for tries.

Mascini was Kangaroos' best, looking dangerous on the edge and enjoying some good carries. Rose was also pleased for Dooley, who had returned to Kangaroos over the off-season but was also on the comeback from a broken leg.

"I'm sure he'll be happy with scoring a couple of tries after coming back from injury," Rose said.

"Dools just lobbed back into town for work, we got chatting and he wasn't sure if he was going to play again or not so it just happened and things fell into place.

"We've played together before at Southcity so we don't have to work on too much, it's more tweaking a couple of things and working together as the season goes on."