“Billingham are a difficult team to play against,” said head coach Dan Orwin, “and they were able to manufacture some mismatches in the first half.

“But I was pleased with the way we adapted as our spacing and line speed got better. We scored some good tries and it was nice to pull away like we did at the end.”

Orwin was delighted with the debut of No 8 Tom Ailes: “he’s different quality” and also singled out winger Sam Freeman, not just for his hat-trick of tries but also his excellence in defence.

The game got off to an emotional start, with hooker Harry Holden claiming the season’s first try only eight minutes after a minute’s silence following the tragic death of his brother.

Remarkably, Freeman wasn’t the only winger to score three tries, opposite number Joe Scarborough doing likewise in just 20 first-half minutes.

Although Billingham never held the lead, the game seesawed throughout the first half as Rory Brand’s solo score from a scrum put Hoppers 14-7 up, Freeman’s first made it 19-12 and Scott Richardson’s try from a typical Sammy Russell break brought it to 26-19 at half-time after Scarborough kept dragging his side back to level terms.

With referee Sam Yates upping the penalty count against both sides after the break and issuing yellow cards to Billingham’s Luke Wilson and Hoppers’ Richardson and Rob Willetts, the hosts responded to an early try by No 8 Arith Jackson to gallop clear with two penalties from Greg Smith and his conversions of Freeman’s second and third tries, to add to his three first-half successes.

Orwin said: “It was nice to get five points in our first game and restrict Billingham to one bonus point.” And he is relishing his squad’s strength in depth: “Lots of lads are pushing for places in the coming games”.

Report by Paul Outhwaite and LEP