Aggies haven't beaten their Wagga rivals in five years after suffering a 34-17 loss at Beres Ellwood Oval on Saturday.

Paying tribute to late teammate Andy Stanham in the clash, Ag College struggled to convert their opportunities behind their inexperienced scrum.

It was a thorn in their side and Waratahs capitalised.

Their scrum dominance was one of the highlights, but co-coach Mick Davis believes there is still plenty to work on.

"I thought we were quite scrappy, trying to be a bit expansive and not earning the right especially in these conditions," Davis said.

"We knew they would be playing on emotion and I don't think we matched their enthusiasm in the first half and I think we need to get a 70 or 80 minute performance instead of just one half.

The premiers went into the break with a 17-7 lead as they made inroads through their back line.

James Grimmett opened the scoring after nine minutes, and while Will Whiteley responded after a lovely Lochie Ramm pass for the home side, a 50-metre effort from Blake Hart and then another long range try from Dan Selmes.

Ag College converted their massive amount of possession, and having Sam Hobbs yellow carded, when Ben Brooke crashed over but minutes later Waratahs responded after Tareq Sorial as was given his marching orders with a pushover effort from Sam Bunny.

James Daley looked to have sealed the win when he scored out wide only for Ramm's try minutes later.

However there was to be no thrilling comeback with Hart's second putting Waratahs out of reach as the jumped over Ag College and into top spot with six games to go before the shortened finals series.

The premiers have won nine games straight after falling to Wagga City in round one.

It was just Ag College's second loss, both in grand final rematches, and coach Will Mitchell rued the fact his team was far from full strength for the clash.

"It was a good game of footy," Mitchell said,.

"Scrum time let us down, and they used that really effectively, and Blake Hart is a big difference for them injecting himself.

"They were really handy, that is what he expected and hopefully both sides are fully fit the next time we see them."

It's not all good news on the injury front for their rivals with Grimmett hobbling off with a knee complaint while 'Tahs are expected to be without plenty of big games for their clash with Leeton next week.

Harry Cook, Jock Munro, Charlie Sykes, Xavier Chigwidden Hobbs, Bunny and Selmes are all expected to miss the game.

Meanwhile Ag College will be looking to bounce back against Tumut who returned to the top four with a win over CSU on Saturday.

The winless Reddies pushed the Bulls early at Jarrah Oval, leading 12-0 in the first half, but couldn't sustain the pressure.

Tumut finished up taking a 33-12 win, their first victory in five games after a draw with Wagga City last week.

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