SHEFFIELD boss Simon Stead felt early rustiness played its part in their opening night 47-43 defeat at Oxford.

With rain washing out both Kyle Howarth’s Testimonial last week as well as a planned track session on Wednesday, their fixture at Sandy Lane was the first bike time of the year for the Tru7 Group Tigers.

Nevertheless, the reigning Champions chipped away at the ten point gap the hosts had opened up and Stead reckons the result could’ve been different on another night.

“I thought we were unlucky,” Stead said.

“We were a little bit rusty in the early heats, we had a few dropped points and we were a little bit unfortunate with an electrical failure for Tai (Woffinden) - if that would’ve finished how the race was preceding then we’d have had a draw.

“It was a difficult one having not had a practice ourselves, going straight into somewhere that was new to a lot of the lads and against a team who have had one meeting here already on top of a full day of practice last week.

“We came back at them though and we looked better overall as the meeting went on so there are positives we can take from this first one and that’s what I’d like us to focus on.”

The two sides meet again for the first fixture of the season at Owlerton next Thursday (March 28, 7.30).

Before that though, it’s a trip to the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership’s other newcomers Birmingham on Monday (March 25, 7.30).