The three first-day matches produced 35 tries, 206 points and enough defensive headaches to last until the next Millennium Magic, which could end up as Murrayfield Magic, with a potential switch to Edinburgh for the May Day weekend next year.

Murrayfield hosted the 2000 and 2002 Challenge Cup finals and the Scottish Rugby Union has been in discussions with the RFL, which fired a shot over the bows of the Cardiff authorities by talking openly of possibly moving the event after two years in Wales. Dublin and Newcastle have also been mentioned as more remote possibilities.

Cardiff does not appear to have embraced the Millennium Magic hard sell with the same gusto as the League and the clubs. Local people were conspicuous by their absence among a 30,628 first-day attendance - 1,700 fewer than for last year's opening Saturday.

There were pyrotechnics aplenty under the roof, if not exactly the most robust defence. Part of the problem, as with last year, was players losing their footing on a surface that had sweated.

Leeds Rhinos, the league leaders, began slowly against Bradford Bulls and finished like an express train, winning 40-26 after trailing 10-6 at the break. Four tries in 14 second-half minutes, the first after 39 seconds by Eric Anselme, in the France forward's first game since moving from Albi on loan, left Bradford clutching at straws.

Kallum Watkins, a 17-year-old centre, enjoyed a tryscoring league debut and demonstrated a great turn of pace to help to free Anselme, and this was quickly followed by tries by Keith Senior, Scott Donald and Brent Webb, who will join the New Zealand squad for the international against Australia in Sydney on Friday. “We only held on to the ball five times in the second half. It's not good enough,”Steve McNamara, the Bradford coach, said Paul Cullen, the Warrington Wolves coach, arguably kept himself in a job with his half-time team talk, which helped to inspire a fightback from 22-6 down against Huddersfield Giants to win 36-34. Had Rod Jensen not fumbled a scoring pass early in the second half, Huddersfield would have been out of reach, but Lee Briers bamboozled Jensen with his kicking game and collected two tries, in addition to a brace by Andy Bracek, after a controversial score by Stuart Reardon began the fightback.

The first-day hero was Danny Brough, the Wakefield Wildcats scrum half, who tormented Castleford, his former club, in a 54-16 hammering. Scott Grix scored three of Wakefield's nine tries.