The Diesels couldn’t hold out a fast finish by the Blues to go down 40-26.

There was little between the two teams for first half as Daniel Foley and Cameron Hands crossed for the Diesels.

Tumut took a 18-12 advantage into the break and they only started to get on top late in the half.

With three injuries in the first half, Hands thought his team “ran out of puff” against the fourth-placed Blues at Twickenham.

“We were right in, but we were the walking wounded by the end of the game,” Hands said.

“I think we just ran out of puff with a lot of blokes playing out of position and they are a big side Tumut.

“In the end they started to roll through us and they have a couple of quick players who took their chances while we made a couple of crucial errors in both halves were they ended up going the length of the field to score tries.”

Hands injured his hamstring just before half-time.

In a blow for the Diesels, he is expected to miss at least the next two weeks.

Afatasi Collins (hamstring) and Aidan Sweeney (knee) were also causalities from the clash.

Sweeney’s knee of particular concern after getting twisted awkwardly in a tackle.

The Diesels started the second half well when Mitchell Sutton found space out wide to score to get his team within two points before Raymond Luke hit back for the Blues.

Star fullbackl Foley reduced the margin to two points once more when he scored his second before Tumut captain Adam Pearce and winger Brayden Draber gave the Blues an important edge.

Trent Charlton scored then scored right on the bell, but it wasn’t enough as the Diesels slipped to their sixth loss from 10 game this season. 

The loss leaves the Diesels in seventh, but after Albury’s win over Tumbarumba they are now a win, plus points differential, outside the top five.

The Diesels have a good chance to bounce back against last-place Cootamundra at Les Boyd Oval on Saturday.

Junee scored a 72-18 win when the two teams met in round one, but with so many injury concerns Hands doesn’t want to underestimate the Bulldogs.

“We are going to be fairly light on troops as reserve grade picked up a couple of injuries as well,” he said.

“It is definitely not ideal and we will probably have a light week in preparation.

“We won’t be taking the game lightly by any chance.”

Cootamundra have some injury concerns of their won with captain Aaron Byrne out after injuring his Achilles tendon in the loss to Gundagai on Saturday.