Oxford Cavaliers began the new season with a 36-6 defeat away to Hemel Hempstead Stags in the TotalRL.com Rugby League Conference.

For the first 15 minutes, it was an evenly contested affair with Oxford missing a penalty.

Stags opened the scoring with a try before Fairhurst replied with a penalty for the Cavaliers.

In the latter stages of the first half, Hemel began to play more expansive rugby, getting the ball wide down both flanks, and scored two tries inside three minutes just before half-time.

The home side then piled on the pressure, but were almost caught out when Cavaliers fullback, Steve Lacey clung to a bomb on his own line before racing half the length of the pitch only to be held up just short of the line.

Resuming the second half 14-2 down, Oxford began with some purpose, Lacey again breaking tackles to gain 40 yards in an impressive drive.

Two sets of six then came to nothing when Oxford fumbled the ball - their afternoon was marred by such wasted opportunities. Some consolation can be found in the performance of play-maker, Barry Randall, who looked to be inventive throughout.

Hemel, playing a much better kicking game than their opponents, made consistent yardage from the boot, and scored again, in the 52nd minute after the Oxford defence failed to get under another bomb.

The Stags then capitalised on further Oxford errors to increase their advantage ten minutes later.

Oxford rallied for a spell in the last quarter, narrowly failing to score after being held up on the line, before Robinson breached the Hemel defence for a well-deserved try.

Cavaliers' efforts proved to no avail when they conceded two more tries.