Leeds Rhinos wing Tom Briscoe promises there is more to come after scoring hat-trick on debut in win over Hull KR
Briscoe joined the Rhinos from Super League rivals Hull in the off-season and repaid the faith with three tries in his first appearance
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Your support makes all the difference.England winger Tom Briscoe made a dream start to his Leeds career with a hat-trick of tries on debut and then warned there is much more to come.
The former Hull flyer got the nod ahead of Ben Jones-Bishop for Sunday's opening First Utility Super League match of the season at Hull KR and responded with three second-half tries to become only the eighth Leeds player to mark his debut with a hat-trick in the Rhinos' 34-6 victory.
"It's definitely nice to score a hat-trick on my debut," Briscoe said. "That's what I came to the club for.
"But it came from the hard work down the middle. All the backs exploited a tired defence I think.
"There's only a couple of new players - myself and Paul Aiton - so the majority of the team know each other inside out and it's up to us two to get into the system. The more we play, the better we will click."
Rovers, cheered on by a stadium record crowd of 11,526, were level at 6-6 at half-time after scrum-half Kris Keating, the man chosen to replace Michael Dobson, scored a try on debut but they were blown away in the second half as Leeds cruised to a 14th consecutive opening-day victory.
Joel Moon, Danny McGuire, Zak Hardaker and Kallum Watkins also scored tries for the Rhinos but it was Briscoe who took the honours and not just for his finishing ability.
"The pleasing thing for me was the way he was involved in our sets coming away from our try line," coach Brian McDermott said. "He was hard to contain. He's a strong fellow and a very robust winger with speed.
"He punched holes in the KR defence in the first half and we value that as highly as the tries. His strength is his strength."
Elsewhere, new-look Salford made a winning start against Wakefield, although they were stunned by a superb second-half fightback before celebrating an 18-14 success, Kirk Dixon scored 16 points to bring up 1,000 for the club in Castleford's 36-18 win at Bradford and Danny Tickle racked up 24 points on debut to help Widnes demolish London Broncos 64-10.
PA
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