Pirates overturned a 17-12 halftime deficit into a 40-22 victory in their first outing for the Upper Mid North Coast Rugby Union season.

While there were some scintillating tries scored, it was their defence and scrum that pleased assistant coach Geoff Duck the most.

"They started pretty loose," he said.

"I thought they turned over a fair bit of possession in the first half which made it challenging for the guys and we rarely got out of our own half."

Support play was a key ingredient in the win and while some of their tries may have looked the Harlem Globetrotters, it was mainly from players pushing up.

"Primarily we're trying to keep it pretty basic and run and use simple support play and not throw it around too much," Duck said.

"Even though the first couple of tries there was a fair bit of interchange, there weren't any stupid passes involved.

"The key thing we wanted to do was support."

The assistant coach said it was a good start to the season.

"I thought the fact they came over the top in the second half showed their fitness is in a good spot after the pre-season," he said.

"I was really happy with the scrum too; primarily my role is helping out Nigel with some of the forward stuff."

Sam Begbie crossed for a couple of tries in a solid team performance, but Duck jotted down some areas of improvement.

"The key thing from the first game is you want to win, but you want to be able to identify areas you want to work on as you go forward," he said.

"We've got plenty of notes there on what to improve on as the season progresses; it's a really good start."