A thunderous Struan Walker strike and an effort from Borja Lacalle saw hosts HC Oranje-Rood get their EHL campaign up and running with an impressive 2-0 win over Real Club de Polo.

Polo had the best of the first quarter chances with Matias Baron bursting through the middle of the field, slipping the ball through to Andreas Rafi’s whose volley shaved the top of the crossbar.

The hosts, meanwhile, took the lead in Q2 through a piece of Struan Walker brilliance. Arthur de Sloover’s crash ball down the middle broke into space in the circle and the Scottish striker reacted brilliantly to hit the free ball first time with an upright backhand.

Henrik Mertgens almost made it two with a neat touch hitting the side-netting as the game remained very much in the balance at half-time.

The second half was similarly tight with precious few openings but Oranje-Rood took the one that mattered as Lacelle swooped on a penalty corner rebound to put his side two goals up.

From there, Polo tried to make the running but they found the Eindhoven club too hard to break down as the home side enjoyed keeping their clean sheet.