The Tigers scored the first two tries of the match before the Blues warmed to their task as they registered a comfortable 36-18 victory.

Blues captain Beau Kettle admitted his side were caught on the hop at the start of the match.

"They started fast," he said.

"But once we started to complete our sets and got the ball in the right position on the field I knew we could turn things around because our backline is probably one of the best ones in the comp."

Halfback Tristan Scott had a hand in everything as the Blues ran in seven tries with centre Sam Watts crossing for a double.

"Tristan is one of a kind and we're so lucky to have him as our halfback," Kettle said.

"His kicking game was good and even his defence for not a big fella was really good. He was our best on ground, but 18-year-old Casey Morgan started in the front-row and he went really well."

Luke Sinclair and fullback Tony Thompson were the only members of the Wauchope backline not to cross the tryline.

"All our tries were scored down the edges which was great and we know we can score tries from anywhere on the park," Kettle said.

Wingham captain Mick Sullivan lamented a lack of fitness from his side and admitted their game plan was to start fast and try to hold on.

It wasn't to be.

"We were cramping and the wheels fell off with about 15 to go and we looked pretty ordinary," he said.

"We need a run or two under our belt but don't want to overkill it on the fitness because it's a long year and we'll build into that.

"I was hoping we'd hold on in the back end. We haven't run on the heavy kikuyu ground for 80 minutes for a long while."

Sullivan was especially disappointed with their second-half performance which was punctuated by errors.

"A lot of our errors came from simple mistakes either in the ruck or from a simple catch and that's just about applying yourself," he said.

"We gave them probably 60-40 ball in the second half and I had no doubt they were probably going to be fitter than us, but once the wheels fell off we got found out quite badly.

"Unfortunately we didn't have the fitness or legs to sustain our start."

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