TO score 92 points in a game of rugby league and do to so in the space of an hour is a remarkable achievement, but after Villages United did just that in their New Era Cup season opener on Saturday, victorious co-coach Kris Kennedy did not want to talk up the effort.

Instead he was grateful that beaten rivals the Lithgow Giants did their best to provide Villages with some opposition at Wallerawang Sportsground.

“They came over with 13 players, but they had a heap of people missing for work, they were struggling for numbers,” Kennedy said.

“Their manager had to play for them, so it was a big struggle. In the end they had to call the game off because of a few injuries, that was with about 20 minutes to go.

“But it was good of them to tough it out and give us a match.”

While Villages’ roster looks a lot stronger than that of the Giants and their 92-0 victory comes on the back of winning two pre-season knockouts, it was not all that long ago when they had troubles with player numbers.

They picked up the unwanted wooden spoon in 2014 before Kennedy and his fellow co-coach Jarrod Gafa helped turn things around last season.

Villages made it to the preliminary final where they lost 26-16 to eventual premiers Blackheath.

“Two years ago the club was struggling a bit, but now things are looking really good, we’ve got over 30 players,” Kennedy said.

“It’s a really good atmosphere, everyone is enjoying it ... a few guys have come here for the chance to play with their brothers or cousins.”

Amongst the new recruits for Villages this season are four Crawfords – Des and Kiamurra making the switch from Group 10 club Bathurst Panthers, Keelan coming from St Pat’s while Kajeel has joined Villages as well after playing in the Brisbane second division competition.

Though the quality of their rivals in the season opener may not have tested Villages’ new-look side, Kennedy was happy with the way his players stuck to the task.

They ran in 54 points in the first half and were on the cusp of triple figures before time was called. 

It ranks as one of the biggest scores in the competition in recent times, joining such dominant affairs as Kandos’ 98-6 win over CSU Yellow in 2013 and an 86-4 victory for CSU Blue over the Giants last season.

“We stuck to what we knew to play, stuck to our plans,” Kennedy said.

“We were pretty happy with how we played, we spread the tries around. It was a good start for us and we have a couple of weeks off now before we play Kandos.”

CSU had the bye in the opening round, but in the league tag competition the two university sides squared-off.

CSU Blue won 32-16 over CSU Yellow.