Five key points from NRL round one

From the horror injury toll to the overwhelming success of the video referee bunker, here are the biggest talking points from the opening round of the NRL.

Casualty ward chaos

Can anyone remember an opening round with more injuries?

After just one round of football it's quite clear that the game is as physical as ever.

The likes of Ben Henry, John Sutton, Adam Reynolds, Michael Lichaa, James Segeyaro, Paul Gallen, Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer are already facing a combined total of 118 weeks worth of matches on the sidelines.

South Sydney were absolutely on fire on Sunday afternoon against arch-rivals the Roosters, but the impressive victory came at a cost with Sutton out 16 weeks with a torn pectoral and Reynolds facing a similar stint out with a fractured jaw.

And in similar vein the Raiders beat the Panthers in a high-scoring thriller on Saturday, but lost both of their starting halves.

Austin and Sezer will miss up to six weeks each due to knee and facial injuries respectively, while Penrith hooker Segeyaro is out for up to eight weeks with a broken arm.

The only good news on the injury front is Gallen's diagnosis. Initially there were fears the Cronulla and NSW skipper was facing a possible career-ending knee injury, but scans suggest it’s more like six weeks.

Every club needs to have depth to be successful over a 26-round season, but the likes of the Rabbitohs and Raiders wouldn’t have been expecting to call on said depth so early on.

Barrett's baptism of fire

Trent Barrett's coaching debut couldn’t have gone any worse. The new Manly boss watched on as his under-strength side was completely outplayed by the Bulldogs on Friday night at 'fortress' Brookvale.

After suffering a horrendous pre-season injury toll, they were dealt a further blow when fullback Brett Stewart was unable to take his place in the side.

Skipper Jamie Lyon labelled the performance "unManly-like" and said his team needed to turn things around around very quickly.

"It is not panic stations but we need to be a lot better than that," Lyon said.

"We expected a lot more from us. We know we can be better and we have to be calm about it moving forward and fix what we have to fix.

"It is not the end of the world but we have to change straight away."

Coming off a terrible 2015 season in which Geoff Toovey was sacked to make way for Barrett, the pressure is well-and-truly on the new coach’s shoulders.

And it doesn't get any easier for the Sea Eagles, who travel to Leichardt in round two to face a red-hot Wests Tigers outfit coming off a dominant performance against the Warriors.

How good is the bunker?

We've only played eight games so far in 2016 but the video referee bunker has so far been an overwhelming success.

From being able to hear the video ref as he makes the decision to seeing inside the actual bunker itself, the whole process is a refreshing update of a system that has frustrated fans for years.

By allowing the fans to see exactly what the video referee is looking at and hear their thought-processes first hand, everyone is on the same page about the decision being made.

It's only early days but the bunker received an extremely positive review on social media:

Early contenders for try of the year

Whether it was the reduced interchange, the shot clock on scrums and drop-outs, the warm March weather or a combination of all three, the opening round saw some incredible football.

The Broncos kicked things off with this scintillating end to end effort against the Eels in the season opener:

Jorge Taufua then miraculously grounded this one in a losing Sea Eagles side:

But James Tedesco stole the show with this incredible try against the Warriors:

If round one is anything to go by, the 2016 season is set to be the fastest and most-exciting we’ve ever seen.

How will the Roosters respond?

The Roosters produced a shocking first-up effort against South Sydney, walloped 42-10 on their home turf.

Their off season woes, including Mitchell Pearce's Australia Day antics and Shaun Kenny-Dowall's court case, dominated headlines through much of the pre-season, and it clearly took its toll on the field.

Trent Robinson's men entered the match without the suspended Pearce, as well as Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Boyd Cordner.

They also lost a number of key players in the off-season in Michael Jennings, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and James Maloney.

"It is not good enough from us," Robinson said. “It is early, we got a good lesson from a team that was hungry to win. We were not hungry enough, we weren't detailed enough.”

"There were lots of areas we were beaten in today. We had better improve.”

Key to that improvement will be inexperienced halves Jackson Hastings and Jayden Nikorima.

Sunday's loss was Nikorima's NRL debut and while he showed flashes of brilliance, the 19-year-old will need a more polished performance going forward.

Hastings is a fantastic young player and a fabulous foil for Pearce, but will struggle to lead his side around the park without a more seasoned halves partner.

The Roosters travel to Canberra in round two and will be hoping their young halves can adjust quickly.