The two sides spent the opening exchanges tussling with each other, as several melees broke out before the referee eventually got the sides under control.

From then on, the rivals spent the rest of the match going back and forth, as each outfit netted a goal before settling for a 1-all draw.

The first breakthrough went to the away side as Barnies' Brendon Reilly pounced on a wayward free kick in the 70^th minute, stabbing the ball past Adam Brakenridge into the corner of the net.

For the next 10 minutes, it felt as though Waratahs were going to leave their home opener empty-handed, until a mammoth throw-in from the men in blue bounced onto the left foot of Bastian Fougerolle, the marksman tucking it away for the equaliser.

When the concluding whistle blew, the outcome felt like a just one as both sides had their moments throughout the derby.

"At the end of the day, it's probably a fair result," Barnies' coach Josh Ward said.

"Coming here, they played a certain way... just kick the ball long and try and work of the seconds which is fine, it's still football."

The physicality was obvious from the sidelines, but it wasn't something that took Ward by surprise.

"I told the boys they had to take the emotion out of the game," he said.

"We probably didn't control that as well as we could in the first half and they [Waratahs] try to wind people up and we sort of fell into their trap which is a bit disappointing.

"It is what it is... that's how they play football but we probably didn't help ourselves at times either."

As for next week's training session, Ward highlighted some of the things he'll be bringing to his side's attention.

"Probably just playing through the third a little bit more, and our movement up front probably wasn't what it should have been," he said.

The feedback from the sky blues' mentor was largely the same as Adam Scimone thought the scoreline was a fair reflection of what unfolded on the paddock.

"It was a battle between the both of us," Scimone said.

"Everyone forgot it was about the football and they came out firing, we came out firing and it put us off our game a bit. It was more like a tug-of-war.

"I told the boys at half-time to relax, play our game, and move the ball quicker."

While he was mostly content with what happened on Friday night, Scimone urged his boys to have more faith their ability moving forward.

"It's a hard thing to train for but their confidence levels... sometimes the boys don't back themselves," he said.

"I think defensively, we were good tonight but going forward, we want to have some better decision-making in that front third."

Waratahs will be back at home in round two for a clash against Macquarie United, while Barnies to Dubbo to take on Orana Spurs.

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