It was a bumper opening round of the Betfred Championship as twelve of the fourteen sides were in action on Sunday afternoon. With the game between the York City Knights and Featherstone Rovers being chosen by Premier Sports as their first live broadcast game for Monday Night Football, the remaining fixtures were played out over two kick-off times.

Getting us underway was the early kick off between Workington and Newcastle while may eyes will have been on how relegated Leigh Centurions would start their campaign at home to Whitehaven, Dewsbury had a home game with Bradford while another Yorkshire derby saw Batley host Halifax, and Sheffield were away at Barrow while London had a home game against Widnes.

The first action of the new season was the brandishing of two yellow cards in the game between Workington and Newcastle but as the sides returned to full strength it was Thunder who opened the scoring through Johnson. The lead was short-lived with a Barnes try and Forber conversion putting the home side 6-4 ahead at the interval. A devastating eleven-minute spell from the visitors sealed the win in the second half with Wilde, Gallagher and Foster all going over in quick succession for a 20-6 win.

Leigh Centurions signalled their clear intentions for the coming season with an impressive 50-4 win over a Whitehaven who were down to ten men at one point after three sin-binnings. Macdonald, Dixon, Aekins and Brand all scored inside the opening half an hour for a 22-0 lead while Nisbet added a fifth try against the ten men on the stroke of half time for 28-0. Macdonald added a second and then a third in the opening minutes of the second half for his hat-trick. Evans clawed one back for Whitehaven, unconverted, before Ioane and then Nisbit concluded the scoring on sixty-seven.

The Widnes Vikings got their season off to a good start with an away win at the London Broncos. Davies, Ince and Edge had put the Vikings 14-0 ahead before Ferreira got the Broncos off the mark. Roby soon responded for the visitors and when Ince got the second of his four tries on the stroke of half time the game was already won at 24-4. Parata added a second London try after the restart before another two from Ince for 34-8. A late Juma consolation counted for nothing as the Broncos crashed by 12-34.

Despite Sheffield opening the scoring through Jones-Bishop after just three minutes, Gillam responded on nine and the conversion edged the home side ahead. A Thackeray try just before the half hour again put Sheffield ahead at 10-8 but tries from Ritson and Miloudi in the closing stages of the half gave Barrow an 18-10 lead. The only scoring action of the second half was a couple of Shaw penalties for 22-10 at full time.

The Bradford Bulls started their season off in confident manner with a big win over the Dewsbury Rams. Dawson-Jones picked up a brace in the opening ten minutes of the half while Patton added a third for the Bulls for an 18-0 lead before Peltier pulled one back for the home side. Kear got a fourth Bulls try just before the interval and Foggin-Johnston added a fifth just after for 30-6. When Wallace and Gill added two more around the hour mark it was all over for the home side and despite Beckett and Carr saving a little face for the Rams the final score in a 46-16 win came from Gill to complete his brace.

Halifax sprinted into an early lead against the Batley Bulldogs with tries from Tangata, Moore and Arundel putting the visitors 16-0 ahead inside the opening twenty-five minutes. Campbell pulled one back for the Bulldogs just before the interval but at 16-6 down the home side were up against it. But it was a side transformed in the second half as Hooley, Whiteley, Ward and Leak all scored tries while only conceding a single penalty from the visitors for a final score of 30-18.

We will have a full match report on tomorrow nights game soon after the final hooter.