Albury-Wodonga Steamers come from behind to win 21-10 against Wagga Ag College

Victory leaves the Steamers fourth in SIRU, one point ahead of Tumut with one game of their home-and-away season remaining.

Both sides still have to play leaders Wagga City and only one of the pair will play finals, so the Steamers look slight favourites at this stage.

They had to come from behind on Saturday and having not had their Victorian players available during lockdown, that resolve spoke volumes of the Steamers' spirit.

"It was so good to get back together as a group," coach James Kora said.

"It's been a while and the guys enjoyed being back around each other, especially having their Victorian brothers back with them.

"Seeing some familiar faces back in the team was pretty good.

"It was a scratchy performance. You could see some of them haven't played for a while but they put in a real team effort.

"They really gutsed it out."

Lochlan Ramm and William Nixon touched down for WAC but the Steamers responded with tries from Blake Le Cornu, Samuel Seton and Sailasa Vakarau.

Each of the tries was converted by Le Cornu to send the home crowd away happy.

"They did well to withstand the pressure from Ag College," Kora said. "We defended really well, it was just a couple of loose mistakes that allowed Ag College to take over.

"Once we managed to get our hands on the ball and go through our phases, we managed to open them up a bit.

"It says a lot about the character of the boys.

"They can do it when they want to; it's just getting them to do it week in, week out.

"But it's pretty hard when we play one week and then the Government locks us down.

"The boys are hanging in there, having a good crack and showing some real positive play."

Kora admitted life as a head coach hasn't been easy this season.

"It's been very challenging," he said.

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"We've never managed to put the same team out twice, our team changes every week.

"You play good one week but the next week, you've got to play several different players because players are out or unavailable.

"When the Government has locked us down, it's been really challenging.

"Can we train? Can we play? Who can go away?

"You're trying to find players and in the end, it gets too hard.

"Sometimes you just have to go, 'nah, that's it.'"

Several players pulled a double shift on Saturday, Vakarau having earlier scored a hat-trick in the second grade match against Deniliquin.

Seton ran in two tries and there was also a treble for Simione Bai as the Steamers prevailed 52-17, recording just their second win of the season.

The Steamers host Wagga City in all three grades next weekend.

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