Former Queensland and Australian centre Willie Tonga has been knocked out cold just 12 seconds into his Super League debut as his Catalans Dragons side lost 18-7 to champions St Helens.

Tonga was injured in the very first tackle of the match as he attempted to bring down Saints prop Alex Walmsley.

The game was held up for eight minutes before Tonga was carried off on a stretcher and was later reported to be “fine”.

Atelea Vea marked his St Helens debut with the game’s first try and teenager Andre Savelio scored his maiden try for the club.

Saints have made a successful start to the defence of their crown by grinding out the win, despite being on the wrong end of a hefty penalty count and having Greg Richards sin-binned.

“I’m not sure it was the prettiest game to watch,” St Helens coach Kieron Cunningham said.

“The most disappointing thing for me is that the fans have waited so long for the season to start and after two TV games all people are talking about are the referees’ decision. We just want to play rugby league.”

Cunningham was full of praise for the French visitors, who lost both halves Scott Dureau and Todd Carney in the build-up to the match.

“For what they’ve gone through, I thought they were great,” Cunningham said. “They are definitely going to be up there this year.”

Despite the seriousness of his injury, Tonga was later reported to be in good health.

Catalans coach Laurent Frayssinous said: “He wanted to stay on the field but as a precaution the medical staff said it was better to stay out of it.

“He is pretty good and I’m sure he will be able to play next week.”

Cunningham confirmed that Australian scrum-half Luke Walsh will not play against Salford in round two next Thursday and is not guaranteed to complete his recovery in time for the World Club Challenge clash with South Sydney on February 22.

“He started light training with us at the back end of last week,” he said. “He won’t play next week. I’d be a fool to bring him back early when there is another 10 months of rugby to play.”