They dig the latter, but still relied on a coat of paint to emerge with a 26-24 win over the Blues in a see-sawing affair at Equex Centre on Sunday.

Down 26-20 and camped on the Kangaroos' line, a grubber from Jacob Toppin was pounced on by centre Lewis Arragon in the corner, but Toppin's conversion for a draw smacked into the right upright and bounced away.

The Roos led 8-4 through a double to winger Eddie Jackson but Tumut, who were scrappy throughout the first half, took the lead at the break through a late try to halfback Lachlan Bristow.

Tumut looked to have a stranglehold on the match when fullback Mitch Ivill and back rower Ron Leapai scored to extend the lead to 20-8, but they couldn't find the knockout punch from there thanks to some gritty Roos on-line defence.

With 15 minutes left a Jake Mascini cut-out pass set up a try to James Strickland to reduce the deficit to 20-14, before Bowie Foster barged over from dummy half to draw the Roos level at 20-all seven minutes later.

A try to Kangaroos hooker Zach Graham, set up by a fine grubber from halfback Tyler Jones, gave the hosts a 26-24 lead, before the Blues' late charge at a draw fell short.

"I was pretty relaxed about it (Tumut's last conversion) really, it was a fantastic effort from us," Kangaroos coach Simon Woolford said.

"We were a bit off today with the ball, no doubt about it, but we still created enough opportunities and scored tries when we needed to.

"The most pleasing thing for me was we played a good team today who got 12 in front, and we had a decision to make, are we in for the fight or do we give up?

"We dug in for each other and I thought our goal line defence was fantastic. They've got some players in their team who can carry the ball and are hard to handle near the try line."

Woolford reserved praise for front rower Luke Ingram, who played 80 minutes against Tumut's strong middle third.

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The Kangaroos have some injury concerns after Richard Herangi aggravated a knee injury and left the field late in the first half, while prop Brayden Sharrock picked up a calf injury.

"We knew Tumut's strength was their middles, for Luke to hold his own for 80 minutes in warm conditions is a big effort," Woolford said.

Tumut co-coach Zac Masters said their errors in the first half brought them undone.

"The first half zapped our energy, we didn't complete well at all and were lucky to be ahead," he said.

"In the second half we had a few boys filling in out of position and at the end we didn't have anything left.

"Simon's done a really good job with the Kangaroos side, they're playing some really good footy but we can improve a lot."

KANGAROOS 26 (Eddie Jackson 2, James Strickland, Bowie Foster, Zach Graham tries; Jackson 3 goals) def TUMUT 24 (Lachlan Bristow, Mitch Ivill, Ron Leapai, Lewis Arragon, Thomas Hickson tries; Jacob Toppin 2 goals) at Equex Centre

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