The Bulls led 12-0 at the break before the Tigers stormed back into the contest.

Tries to Mick Eccleston and Jake Luff levels things at 12-all with 13 minutes to go.

Chris Rose, who would go on to be named man of the match, put his team in front with seven minutes remaining to seal the 16-12 win.

Tries to the evergreen Bernie Trevaskis and livewire fullback Daniel Jeffries gave the Bulls a nice advantage as they searched for their first reserve grade premiership.

However they fell off the pace in the second half.

Gundagai captain-coach Mark Eccleston thought his team’s fitness came to the fore.

“It was a very good game but we knew we had it in us,” Eccleston said. 

“The second half is usually our better half as we train so hard all year.

“At 12-nil down you could have thrown the towel in but we knew what we had to go better and we went out there and done it.”

The Tigers went out to work better around the ruck in the second half and it saw an increased intensity to their attacking forays.

Luff finished off some brilliant play from a number of teammates as they refused to die with the ball before putting the centre over to score.

While the Tigers celebrated a third premiership in as many years, Eccleston was just happy to come away with another victory.

“It is just one for us as we are a different team this year,” he said.