Coming off their first loss since 2016, the Phantoms were on the back foot against Aggies at Leeton No.1 Oval on Saturday.

The university team led 17-5 at half-time, and extended their advantage to 24-10 midway through the second half.

However they couldn’t sustain the pressure as a powerful finish helped Leeton to a 34-24 win.

After letting Waratahs get out to a 40-7 lead at the break in their loss last week, Leeton captain Tim Rolls thought his team’s poor starts has become a real issue this season.

It’s something he’s looking to work on.

“It is good to bounce back even though we did it pretty tough,” Rolls said.

“Our first half was pretty poor again and it is looking like a pretty unfortunate trend at the moment.

“We’re certainly responding in the second half, which is positive, and able to notch up enough points to get us over the line.”

Noa Rabici led the way for Leeton and caused plenty of headaches out wide for Ag College while Kelevi Ravulu had a strong second half.

Despite coming up short, Ag College captain Cameron Duffy was thrilled his with team’s effort.

He thought a patch in middle of the second half proved costly.

“What worked really well for us is we held the ball and put five or sets phases together,” Duffy said.

“That was our goal from the start, and because of that they couldn’t play for footy.

“There was a 10 minute gap where we made a few silly mistakes and because of that we couldn’t put together those four or five phases and they had the ball too much, played their wide, fast running rugby and scored three successive tries at the end of it.”

Duffy was thrilled with his team’s defensive efforts as they limited the Phantoms to their second lowest score of the season.

Sam Webster was outstanding for Aggies, getting through plenty of work in attack, defence and at the breakdown while Duncan Woods and Gerard McTaggart were also strong.

With a clash against undefeated ladder leaders Waratahs to come on Saturday, Duffy believes the performance will be a huge confidence boost for the young side.

“I think it is really encouraging and we have all got a bit of a kick out of how we have done,” he said.

“It’s not as though we are surprised by how we went, but now we have more belief in our ability.

“I think the belief in our ability and determination is now there and carrying that through to Waratahs it is going to be exciting to see how we can challenge them.

“Building is going well.”