The Logan Saints started the 2010 season in the best possible fashion by knocking off premiership threats Brothers 15 - 12 in the first game of the season played at Homestead Park on the weekend.

Sweltering conditions made life difficult for all players but the Saints had to overcome the huge loss of five senior players to a bout of illness just before the game and was forced to call up players from the lower grades such as flanker Johnny McMillan and number-8 Salafai Au stepping in to bolster the Logan line-up.

From the opening passages of play, the disruption to the Saints didn't show and Brothers were forced to withstand a display of aggression from the forwards and some exciting running rugby from the Logan backline.

In particular, the Saints front row caused problems for Brothers and set a strong attacking platform, which paid off when Saints halfback Tim Burrows broke away from the back of scrum near the half-way line and raced 40 metres to set up outside centre Jay Staunton for the opening try of the game.

To the Brothers' side's credit, they fought back strongly and the game was finely balanced throughout, leading up to a driving forwards try from the visiting side to close the margin just before half-time.

After the break, both sides struggled with the heat and seemed to be making little inroads in their efforts to break the tight contest.

A number of missed penalty goal attempts did nothing to alleviate the tension building around the ground until a lineout move deep in Brothers territory allowed winger Quinton Matika to slip through the tiring Brothers defence around the edges of the set-piece and to ensure a Saints victory.

Club spokesman Danny McGowan was upbeat about the team's early season effort.

"It was always going to be a hell of a game first up against Brothers and everything seemed to really fall into place for us," said McGowan.

"With a few more games under the boys' belts and an improvement in their match fitness along with getting out best team out on the field, hopefully we'll be playing even better rugby before too long."

McGowan praised winger Pat Edwards for being Saints' best player due to his blockbusting attacking game, with captain and hooker Rex Harrison and lock Kris Ziepes not far behind.

In other games, the Saints' colts side were extremely unlucky to go down 24 - 23 to the Sunnybank Dragons.

Logan looked the stronger of the two sides throughout their enthusiastic encounter and it took a last-minute try from the Dragons to snatch victory from the Saints.

Logan's reserve grade side toiled hard in the heat but suffered a 29 - 5 loss to Brothers, and the Saints' third and fourth grade teams didn't fare much better, losing 41 - 12 and 15 - 7 respectively to organised Brothers outfits.

The Saints continue their 2010 rugby union campaign next Saturday with away games against the University of Queensland.