Albury had conceded 162 points in their first two games of the year but came through in a thriller against Ag College at Murrayfield on Saturday.
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The two teams went virtually try-for-try, but some resolute defending from the Steamers at the death was enough for a 33-29 win.
Coach Paul Musarra was pleased to get off the mark.
“The guys defended a lot better today and scored a couple of good tries,” Musarra said.
“We were lucky to get anyway with it, we really probably didn’t deserve it with around a three to one penalty count against us with a lot of ill discipline, but we defended really well.”
Josh Gemmell scored the winning try after a rolling maul from a line out with about five minutes to play.
Sam Allen was a standout at five-eighth.
Better known as an outside back, Musarra has been impressed with Allen’s contribution.
“He gives us great variability at 10 and puts a lot of doubt in the defence,” he said.
“He is a great ball runner and it just frees up Dev (James Devlin) to play fullback.
“I don’t know what we are going to stick with through the year but I think we will be sticking with him at 10 for a while.”
Dave Cooper-Dunn was also strong in the forwards and played his best game since returning to the club.
While the win was one to savour for the Steams, Ag College coach Will Mitchell was left with a decidedly bad taste in his mouth.
The Aggies drop to a 1-2 record after the narrow loss.
“We didn’t rock up,” Mitchell said.
“We were arrogant and played a very poor first half.
“We actually came back and hit back in the second half when we checked ourselves a bit, but we didn’t have the maturity to finish off that game.
“We put ourselves in a stupid situation, which we should not have been in, and we couldn’t get over the line when we had every opportunity to win it.”
Coming off a good win over Griffith away from home, Mitchell was unimpressed by how his team handled another tough road trip.
“We are really disappointed with it and know we are a much better side, we have some potential,” he said.
“We just seem to gain confidence one week they throw half of it in the bin the next.
“That is a maturity thing and we need to grow up quickly to be any threat to the competition and start getting some results.”