Luke Eves, Andrew Henderson, Jeremy Manning, Tim Ryan and Ally Hogg were all included in the side picked by Alan Tait as he begins his first full season in charge at Kingston Park, alongside new captain James Hudson and Middlesex Sevens plate winners Charlie Amesbury, Alex Tait, Chris Pilgrim and Will Welch.

The Falcons immediately stamped their authority on the match and prop Tim Ryan made a strong run for the line. Tim Swinson nearly fought his way over, but it was Rob Vickers who scored the opening try, and Jeremy Manning converted.

Brent Wilson, sporting a Joe McDonnell-like beard, pounced on a loose ball in the 22 to double the lead.

Rotherham didn't have an attack until the game was 20 minutes old, but nothing came of it and Gcobani Bobo and Andrew Henderson combined to set up James Hudson on the right, but the captain was held up.

Despite having Hudson in the sin-bin, with seven minutes to go until half-time the Falcons drove for the line and Ryan scored at the back of the maul, Manning again converting for a 21-0 interval lead.

After just a few of the second 40 minutes, Bobo set up Manning for the fly-half to score. It was a swansong for 'Bernie' Manning as he was soon replaced with Jimmy Gopperth. Gopperth and Jon Golding both received a huge cheer as they entered the game.

The replacement Kiwi fly-half kicked over a penalty in front of goal just before Will Welch made a try-saving tackle on our right, but from the resulting lineout Alex Tait kicked for touch and from Rotherham's throw Joe Bedford beat Ryan to wreck our clean sheet. Juan Pablo Socino converted.

Wilson scored his second almost immediately though, as Hudson offloaded to him after taking the kick-off, Gopperth converting.

With ten minutes to go Luke Eves scored a converted debut try under the posts, but Bedford kept the Falcons honest by rolling over a tackle by his opposite number Chris Pilgrim for a second Rotherham try.

On full-time, Charlie Amesbury wandered across the pitch and for once one of our players went outside when they could have scored easily by going inside a defender, however the winger was able to pass to replacement Michael Tait, who repeated his feat in the reserve game to score. Gopperth's conversion missed, so the first team didn't score 50, but 48-12 was quite satisfactory.

There are obviously many harder tests than this to come, but this was a comprehensive victory and there were some very good performances, particularly from Ryan, Manning and Wilson. I thought Henderson was mixed, he showed some good touches but struggled to impose himself on the game, and I'll wait to form an opinion on Eves.

A good, encouraging workout though with plenty of commitment.

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