Catholic schools win to start Hardy Shield

It sets up a big clash with Kildare Catholic College in round two on Wednesday after their arch rivals also got off to a winning start.

Mater Dei weathered an early storm against a bigger Kooringal outfit before they started to make plenty of inroads.

First Tom Ferguson scored from dummy half after 13 minutes before tries to Darion O'Toole and Danny Kopecny had them out to a 16-0 lead at half-time.

Kooringal hit back three minutes into the break when Seb Rodet barged over but errors really thwarted any hopes of a comeback.

Instead tries to Blaine Speers and Josh Press extend Mater Dei's advantage before Blake Wheatley crashed over in the last minute for Kooringal.

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Co-coach Sam Bailey was thrilled with the team's performance in the 28-6 victory.

"It was a great start from the boys," Bailey said.

"We knew they would be tough, especially off the back of last year, but our prep was simple and easy.

"We knew we were fit so we just did our role and it worked out well for us."

Bailey was particularly pleased with their flow in attack led by Ferguson but admitted they will need to bring their best to keep up their unbeaten start after Kildare took a 40-4 win over Wagga High.

Kildare were in cruise control for most of their clash.

Campbell Tuilakeba got the ball rolling in the opening minutes before Ryan Fairall took advantage of a big run from Kye Wright to double their advantage.

Wright then did all of the damage himself as he went 30 to score.

Kildare kept firing late in the first half as Will McDermott capitalised off a good run from Ryley Watson to score from dummy half before Joe Morton ran 40 metres on the next set to hand Kildare a 24-0 lead at the break.

Cohen Benson scored off a long range effort five minutes after the interval before Watson and Matt Murphy benefited from some nice back line plays to get themselves on the scoreboard.

It wasn't until the last minute that Wagga High were able to cross for a consolation.

After an error right over the try line Angus Clark was able to give his side something to celebrate.

Wagga High will be looking to regroup when they tackle The Riverina Anglican College on Wednesday while Kildare coach Matt Ward is looking to his side to really complete well in their big clash after failing to get to their kick at any stage throughout the contest.

"It's a bit hard in a game when you are making breaks at will but completing one set would be ok," Ward said.

"The aim will be to complete more sets next time."

With Mt Austin High School withdrawing from the competition late last week there will be no semi-finals played instead each team will play each other once with the top two sides to progress to the final on April 4.