The Lions were toppled by the Cowra Eagles 15-3 in the season opener at Pride Park on Saturday in a physical clash.

A tight opening period had the scores locked at 3-all at the break before two unanswered tries in the season half gave the Eagles the 12-point victory.

"It gives us a really good benchmark in regards to where we're at and what we need to do and work on," Paasi smiled after the match.

"I was really impressed. I thought our attitude and our discipline was really good. Our tempo just needs a little bit of fixing, along with a few other key areas. It gives us a great benchmark and I'm very proud of everything the guys achieved."

The first half was hotly contested but both sides made errors as they were blowing out the cobwebs.

Cowra's Gonzarlo Carizzo kicked a penalty goal seven minutes in but Keegan Harding replied with a three-pointer of his own for City at the 20-minute mark.

It looked as though Cowra had taken the lead not long after but hooker Conor Lamond's try was denied for obstruction, and the scores remained locked at the break.

The second half was a different game with Cowra's discipline improving and their size advantage in the forwards paying dividends with field position and points.

"We knew that if we could be a bit more direct and get the forwards through the middle it would open up, which it did," Cowra coach Colin Kilby explained.

Flanker Tom Dewhurst was first to score for the Eagles, crashing through a small gap after repeat phases, Carizzo's conversion giving the Eagles a 10-3 lead.

In the 56th minute outside centre Navitala Bola, who was dangerous all game, worked off the forwards and managed to reach out and score.

City spent much of the second half in their own half, but Paasi could only see positives.

"I know that Cowra are meant to be a good side this year so I couldn't be more proud of how they defended and did everything they could," Paasi said.

"A lot of football was played in that last half, so they'll be very tired tonight, but I'm very happy with how we went and I'm looking forward to building on the back of that and seeing how we go next week.

"Yeah, we didn't win the game, but I did feel like that everything we addressed at half-time we were able to fix it. So that's really impressive."