New South Wales Scorpions have thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the field in the men’s Elite Eight division at the National Touch League.

Heralded prior to the tournament as the dark horses, the Scorpions showed they have plenty of potential as they won all of their three matches on day one at the C.ex Coffs International Stadium.

The inaugural men’s Elite Eight champions turned back the clock with huge wins over the 2013 and 2014 winners.

They first stunned New South Wales Country Mavericks (6-5) followed by a big victory over Queensland Chiefs (8-3) and finished it off with a pulsating 8-7 win against the defending champions the Queensland Country Outlaws.

They have already won more games than they did in the entire 2014 tournament.

Behind them are a range of teams who are separated by two points.

Among them are New South Wales Mets, Mavericks, Outlaws and Queensland Stingrays.

Despite missing a plethora of their Australian representatives, the Mets lost none of their spark to put themselves near the top of the table alongside the Mavericks and Scorpions.

After their shock first round loss, the Mavericks backed up with an entertaining 9-8 win over the Mets and another one touchdown victory over the Alliance.

The Outlaws will need to repeat their 2014 form if they are any chance of defending their title, while the New South Wales Rebels will be looking for more consistency on day two.

The Queensland Chiefs had sizable losses to conclude day one and will be keen to do better.

The hard luck story of day one belongs to The Alliance.

They are anchored to the bottom of the table after losing all their matches.

However, all their defeats were by one touchdown.

Day two of the men’s Elite Eight division commences at 12.20pm with the grand final replay between the Mavericks and Outlaws the game of the day.