With captain-coach Daniel Fitzhenry returning from a knee injury sustained the last time the two teams met, the Dragons failed to fire as the Blues threw a spanner in their fianls hopes.

Tumut led 12-8 at half-time before storming away from their rivals in the second half.

They were as much as 20 points in front before the Dragons scored right on the bell.

After a hard initiation to Group Nine, Tumut captain-coach Luke Srama was thrilled with how his team responded.

“We turned things around which is wanted we wanted as a group and a club,” Srama said. 

“We are going in the right direction.

“It was a great win and a great team effort all round.

“I am very happy with it.”

The win sees the Blues bounce off the bottom off the ladder for the first time in since round six.

They now sit in ninth, just below Cootamundra on percentage.

Srama is looking to back up their performance when they host the red hot Gundagai in a local derby on Sunday.

“Gundagai is going to be huge for the town, especially coming off a win,” he said.

After moving back into the top five last week, Temora are once again just adrift of a finals place and will tackle Kangaroos on Sunday.

A serious ankle injury to fullback Trent Swanson is the only negative from Tumut’s surprise win.

Swanson needed to be carried off the field after being hit late in the 34-18 win.

Luke Srama is hoping scans won’t reveal too much damage.

With plenty of expectations of a Blues revival, Srama said the first half of the season was an eye-opener.

However, he believes the team will be a tougher force now they know what other can throw at them.

“They (Temora) are a quality team and after the last time we played them and watching the video we thought we had the game for the taking, expect for a couple of silly little things towards the end which blew the game right out,” Srama said.

“We came into the game full of confidence, knew what we could do to change a little bit of structure.”

Kieran Sherratt and Callum Mulkeen were among the Blues best.