Tumut kicked off their 2022 campaign with a tough win over a new-look Albury outfit at Greenfield Park on Sunday.
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The Thunder have been one of the busiest clubs throughout the off-season, while the Blues have struggled on the player market, but one of the competition heavyweights proved far too strong.
Not even a couple of changes could limit Tumut's impact as they took a 28-12 victory.
They were forced to change their second row after Todd Broad injured his hamstring on Friday night while five-eighth James Toppin only lasted a few minutes after injuring his hamstring.
Tom Hickson impressed after switching to the halves to cover Toppin and overall Blues co-coach Zac Masters was pleased with how the side started the season.
"Albury is always a tough road trip and they've bought a fair few players so we were coming down here expecting a pretty tough challenge so to come away with the win is definitely a positive," Masters said.
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Masters was particularly pleased with how the team scrambled in defence as they held the Blues scoreless in the second half.
Jon Huggett was quick to answer a Tom Jefferies try to start the game, but Tumut were able to kick clear as the Thunder error count grew.
New coach Robbie Byatt was left to rue a poor start to the season.
"Too many errors, it came down to that, we didn't respect the ball and they wanted the ball more," Byatt said.
"We weren't on."
They will need to improve quickly ahead of their trip to tackle Young on Saturday while Tumut host Brothers on Sunday.
Hickson is expected to remain at five-eighth.
"It looks like it might be fairly serious the way he (Toppin) was limping off but we will have to wait and see over the next week," Masters said. "He had it going into the game from training on Friday night and as soon as he opened up in the first set or two he did it."
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