Steve Tracey crossed with three minutes left on the clock to put the Wagga club in front for the first time since the first half.

Tracey then slotted a sideline conversion to push the scoreboard to 31-28 and give his team a little more breathing room.

It was enough to earn a grand final spot against high-flying Albury on Saturday.

Buoyed by a home crowd, Leeton had one last opportunity but a lost line up ensured the Phantoms’ dreams of a fairytale season were over.

Waratahs have now won three elimination finals to set up a clash with the Steamers and coach Will Mitchell thought their grit helped them to another narrow win.

“Hughie Palmer showed a lot of leadership and faith in the boys by taking a couple of those penalties and that is finals footy,” Mitchell said.

“You don’t have to be pretty, you just need to win, if it’s one point, two or 20 it doesn’t really matter.”

Starting well, with Tracey crossing for the opening try in the second minute, the Wagga club had all the early running.

They led 11-0 before the Phantoms had their first opportunity with ball in hand. 

However it didn’t take Leeton long to hit back.

Stuart Dyer put Maika Ravouvou over for a simple try to reduce the margin to dour before Waratahs returned serve through Tracey.

The livewire fullback scored his second when Guy McAlister slipped him a ball a minute later.

Leeton didn’t have a lot of opportunities but made their limited chances count. 

Back to back tries saw Leeton hit the front, and they stayed there for tmost of the second stanza.

Taking a 21-18 lead into the break, Tino Simeti pushed the margin to 10 points when he scored under the posts.

Two more penalty goals from Bonner reduced the margin to four before Tracey completed his hat-trick as Waratahs continued their late rally.

Despite not scoring a try against Leeton all season coming into the game, the first year coach was confident his team could turn it all around.

Waratahs will go into the grand final as big underdogs, even though they only lost to Albury by nine points in the last round of the finals.

It’s a position Mitchell is happy to be in.

 “There is no pressure on us,” he said.

“The only pressure on is is from within to give our best performance.

“I think we are improving week by week so it’s a good thing to make a grand final while you are the up.

“Albury have a lot of pressure on them, they have dusted a lot of teams this year.

“We know that we can beat them, but they would be confident.”

Full-time

WARATAHS 31 (S Tracey 3 tries; E Bonner con, 4 pens, S Tracey con) d LEETON 28 (T Simeti 2, D Patu, M Ravouvou tries; S Dyer 4 cons)