The Armidale Blues continued their stellar pre-season form by beating the Tamworth Magpies when the New England Rugby Union season officially began on Saturday.
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The Blues showed their dominance early, posting the first try two minutes in through Morgan Pennefather.
Harry Pollard converted and then followed it up with a penalty goal three minutes later to push the Blues to a 10-nil lead.
Shuaib Rhodes-Swain then made it 15-nil with a try of his own at the 11-minute mark but Tamworth hit back with Norman Turner scoring.
After half-time, Tamworth posted the first points via Mitch Bowen. That was converted and the Magpies had clawed back to 15-12.
But their success was short-lived with the Blues' Fraser Thomas scoring, and Pollard converting.
Then Rhodes-Swain darted over late in the game.
They sealed the 34-12 triumph when Jayden Smith made his way over on the full-time siren.
Following the match, captain Jack Grant told ACM there is still plenty of improvement in the Blues.
"Good in patches," he said.
"We have still got a lot to work on and the structure is still not quite there.
"But to get a bonus point down in Tamworth, we are very happy with that.
"There was times where we could have dropped our heads, they had a bit of a front foot roll on but we were able to compose ourselves.
"It was the attitude we were happy with."
In the day's other matches, the women's 10s was a high-scoring affair which went the way of Tamworth 37-26.
The Blues scored a 27-19 victory in second grade while Tamworth won 36-5 in third grade.
This Saturday the Blues will be at Bellevue Oval to face Robb College who had a bye in round one.