Kangaroos and Albury came into the clash at Greenfield Park level on wins, but courtesy of two tries in the final 12 minutes the Wagga side now heads into the second half of the season in fifth with a four-point buffer.

After a perfect start, where Ritchie Herangi charged over after four minutes, Kangaroos struggled to make their early dominance count.

Instead the two teams went try-for-try in the first stanza but after Albury extended their lead shortly after half-time Kangaroos scored the last three tries in the game to take a 24-18 win.

After a big second half fadeout while leading Young last time out, coach Simon Woolford was pleased with how the side fought back.

"We showed some improvement and a bit more resilience," Woolford said.

"We made it hard for ourselves again, which is a bit of a pattern at the moment, but we did have 15 men for probably 60 minutes after losing (Chris) Maher and Ned (Cooper) so we won't forget that."

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Cooper picked up a shoulder issue while Maher didn't return with a sternum complaint.

They were the two negatives from the win after reeling in a 18-10 deficit.

The Thunder, who lost front rower Reece Clegg to an ankle complaint, led for long stages of the clash after fill-in halfback Keanau Wighton showed off his speed with a 50-metre effort to put Albury in front after 21 minutes.

However after being burned by Wighton's pace Kangaroos fullback Jake Mascini was able to show his own with a 70-metre kick return setting up Noa Fotu's try with 13 minutes left in the first half.

The Thunder responded when Zain Mitchell-Dowding crashed over with three left in the half before Luke Olsson extended their lead to eight points when he scored eight minutes into the second half.

Kangaroos were quick to hit back when Jordan Little crossed six minutes later.

Albury had a number of chances, including Dowding-Mitchell being held up over the line, but it was Kangaroos who struck next as Luke Ingram crashed over to score against his former club.

A mistake from Curtly Jenkinson trying to gather a kick on the next set provided Kangaroos with a great opportunity and they made no mistake as Mascini set up James Strickland for what would be the winning try with six minutes remaining.

Albury thought they had found their way over with three minutes remaining but Olsson was ruled to be held up.

It was one of a number of opportunities the Thunder had on the Kangaroos' line but they couldn't find the way over.

With Andrew Smith picking up a hamstring issue at training, coach Adrian Purtell, who is also sidelined with injury, thought the team lacked experience with the game on the line.

However he's still proud of the progress the side is making.

"We probably did enough to win that game but a few errors in the last 15 minutes hurt us badly," Purtell said.