Tumut recruit Ron Leapai forced his way over the line on the last tackle to hand the Bulls a 30-26 victory over Macquarie Wests Tigers in the return of senior representative rugby league at Camden on Sunday.

Riverina led for most of the clash but it looked like a high error count, and some inferior goal kicking, looked to have proved costly before the late rally.

Coach Luke Berkrey was relieved to come away with the victory.

"We made it hard on ourselves but we got the win," Berkrey said. "It was good to win as I thought we were the better team for the whole game but there was just so much drop ball.

"We did well to come away with the win in the end."

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Riverina jumped out to a 14-8 lead as Zac Masters scored right on half-time before the Tigers fought back as Berkrey thought the side struggled for rhythm.

They hit the front after a penalty goal with 19 minutes remaining to set up a see-sawing finish.

The lead changed three times in the last nine minutes after Jed Pearce profited from a sublime James Luff offload to put Riverina back in front.

However an error of the restart helped the home side regain the lead before Riverina pulled off the big finish.

On their last play, a cool Kyle McCarthy found Leapai out wide and he did enough to force himself over the line to ensure Riverina takes winning form into a clash with Illawarra next week.

However they will be without James Smart and Daniel Foley, who came on as the captain's replacement and scored a hat-trick.

Smart injured his shoulder after being held up over the line following a promising beginning.

Early signs are not positive for the Gundagai fullback.

"It doesn't look good," Berkrey said.

"His shoulder is badly dislocated, they can't get it back in and they are worried about some fractures."

However Berkrey doesn't expect to make any more changes after James Hay received a late call up into the squad.

Masters was also put on report late in the clash.

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