"We got belted," was how Bumblebees coach Phil Jones summed up their efforts against a strong Evans River line-up. 

The Bees traveled away with an under-strength team and paid for it with a 50-5 loss. 

Jones said they were missing a host of players who would normally start, and it showed. 

"We had four of our players out from the week before, our run-on players," he said. 

"Both my centres were injured in the trial game.

"They opened us up in the middle and we just didn't have the structure there.

"They dominated us in the scrums, they had plenty of tight heads and that set the scene for the day." 

Jones highlighted a handful of standouts.

"There was plenty of good things to come out of it, not all negative," he said. 

"A few individuals really stood up and played well.

"Grant Townes had a really good game, he tackled everything that moved.

"Jayson Murphy had a very strong game when he came on."

The Bees have managed to land a round two bye, a timely one according to Jones. 

"We have a bye this weekend which will be good, it will help us get over a few of the injuries from the first game," he said. 

Then it is back to rolling up the sleeves with a home game at Federation Park against premiers Yamba. 

"We play Yamba here, we have a pretty tough draw, we have got Yamba then Iluka then Kyogle," Jones said. 

In the meantime, Jones and the Bees will be working hard to fix up their errors. 

"Scrums are the big thing we really need to sort out in the next couple of weeks," he said. 

"You have just got to win your set plays otherwise you are handing possession over to the opposition all the time."