Gold Coast and Penrith are the first two teams into the NRL Auckland Nines quarter-finals after claiming a perfect two wins from two attempts on day one.

Titans star Jarryd Hayne played well for the Titans, who belted NRL premiers Cronulla in the tournament opener before accounting for Canterbury.

The Panthers also clinched a finals berth after toppling the Bulldogs and then shocking the Sharks without NRL stars Nathan Cleary, James Tamou and Waqa Blake.

Earlier on Saturday, favourites Parramatta, North Queensland and Brisbane lived up to their billing with first-up wins at Eden Park.

On the injury front, the Warriors’ 15-11 loss to Manly on home turf was further soured by a groin strain to star halfback Shaun Johnson in the warm-up, which meant he didn’t play.

The severity of the strain is unclear but 44-year-old skipper Ruben Wiki said post-game that Johnson would play later in the two-day tournament.

South Sydney’s Aaron Gray hobbled off with medial ligament injury in his side’s last-gasp loss to Canberra and is in now in major doubt for round one of the season proper.

The Eels, last year’s revoked Nines champions, cruised to victory against the Dragons, with Corey Norman and Clint Gutherson particularly impressive.

“It was really important to come here, start off how we ended it last year, and we did that,” 21-year-old fullback Bevan French said.

For the Cowboys, who have perhaps brought the strongest squad to Auckland, their performance against the Roosters was crushing.

All eyes were on Johnathan Thurston early on but it was Michael Morgan who was first to impress, earning a stunning solo effort down the right flank.

Gideon Gela-Mosby jumped to the top of the tryscoring leaders board with a hat-trick, including one scorcher down the left flank.

“It was fun but tough at the same time,” Thurston said after his first nines appearance.

“You see a lot more space when you’ve got the ball, it’s a lot quicker so it’s a good type of footy to play at this time of the year.”

The Broncos opened their account by swatting aside last year’s NRL grand finalists Melbourne in an 18-4 win.

Kiwi ace Jordan Kahu and Matt Gillett combined for three tries, while Josh Addo-Carr also got on the scoresheet moments after running down James Roberts.

In other results, Newcastle scored a clinical victory over the Wests Tigers.