Briston's hat trick helps tame Stallions | Rotorua Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Rotorua

A hat-trick of tries to Counties-Manukau Stingrays centre Rusty Briston was the catalyst to WaiCoa Bay Stallions 52-16 season opening loss.

Playing in perfect conditions on Blake Park, Tauranga - the Stallions looked rusty in their first hit-out of the 2011 New Zealand Rugby League's national competition, when they took on last year's grand-finalists at the weekend.

Stallions' captain Simon Beal said his team were disappointed with the loss but were confident they could turn it around for their next game against Southern Scorpions in Huntly.

"I think if we had put it together for 80 minutes we could have been a bit more competitive. There were patches there where we just played like schoolboy football. They're [Stingrays] too classy and capitalise on mistakes.

"The boys only just got together last week and are still getting to know each other and play football together. Counties obviously had a game last week, were a little bit more together and I think it showed."

Counties scored 10 tries to the Stallions three and it was all from a simple game plan from the visitors. Use their big forwards to charge at the Stallions and the gaps will open up.

From the kick off Counties got their forward machine up and rumbling, with second rowers Roy Pomee, Anthony Lama as well as captain Roman Hifo smashing into the Stallions' defensive line - opening up space around the ruck for their halves Jethro Friend and Trent Bishop to grab some easy metres.

In fact their first try came from a dummy half run from Briston who scooted 3m from the Stallions' line to dot down near the post. It was the first of three tries for the strapping youngster who hounded the Stallions the entire match.

When they were not scoring from dummy half they were spreading it out wide exposing the Stallions' flanks to the dangers of wingers Aniseko Machong and Roberston Tu who both picked up two tries.

The home side struggled to find any rhythm, regularly losing possession early in their tackle count which only applied more pressure on the team to make more tackles.

The tackle count would weigh heavily on the Stallions with the home side having to make 119 tackles compared with the Stingrays 79 for the entire match.

The teams went into the break with the visitors ahead 22-4 and although the Stallions were able to grab some ascendancy during the second spell they were unable to claw back the lead eventually going down 52-16.

Counties coach Rusty Matua was happy with his team's performance, especially after the team gave up a first-half lead last week to lose to the Central Vipers.

"It was a bit of a kick in the bum last week, against the Central Vipers. It's really neat to get some points on the board for us today for our zone."

Beal said his team would be also looking at getting their combinations right for next week.

In the Stallions age group games both teams lost to Counties with the 15s going down 40-0 and the 17s losing 36-16.

Premier Scorers:

Stallions 16 (Mounga Molisi, Zane Milliken, Marrin Haggie tries; Adam Bungard 2 cons) Stingrays 52 (Rusty Briston 3, Marcus Marsh, Aniseko Machong 2, William Stowers, Trent Bishop, Robertson Tu 2 tries; William Stowers 6 cons) Halftime; 4-22