The Cherrypickers looked like they were going to cruise to another big victory to start the season when Tom Bush crossed to make it 26-0 just minutes after half-time.

However the game turned with Mitch Cornish in the sin bin as Tumut continued a big rally.

The Blues closed within six points when Mal Aitken crossed in the corner with 11 minutes to go and had a great chance to level things.

Instead they fell short as Young held solid before Cornish scored with a minute remaining to take a 32-20 win at Alfred Oval on Sunday.

While captain-coach Nick Cornish was thrilled with how Young started the game, their second half fade out is a big concern heading into a top-of-the-table clash with Gundagai on Sunday.

"In the first half we did everything we spoke about at training to pretty much perfection and then we just didn't turn up in the second half," Cornish said.

"We know they have good middles, and it was something we spoke about, and while we contained them in the first half when you don't contain them in the second half you can see what they can do.

"When they got a roll on they are hard to stop. We were a little bit flat coming out in the second half, maybe thinking we had the job done but obviously not.

"We had to get ourselves back into the game."

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Young started off well as Jake Walker charged over after six minutes before Josh Ayers scored the first of his two tries to add to Young's advantage at the midway point of the half.

Jake Veney finished off a good back line movement to see Young out to a 20-0 lead at half-time before Bush added to Young's advantage two minutes into the second half.

It took Tumut 50 minutes to score as Mitch Ivill capitalised on a break from Tom Hickson.

However they didn't have to wait as long for their second as Blake Maher crossed in the opposite corner.

Mitch Cornish was giving his marching orders after the try and the Blues took advantage as Hickson crossed, this time a beneficiary of a big bust through the middle by Josh Webb.

Tumut scored another long range effort when Aitken scored following a break from Lachlan Bristow and Bristow's sideline conversion made it a six-point game.

Tumut had another good chance but the comeback wasn't to be as they slipped to their third straight loss.

Despite holding on for the win, Nick Cornish was far from pleased with their defensive effort to concede 20 straight points.

"We know we can score points, and I've spoken about that all season, but I'm very disappointed that we have a defensive goal and not only did we not achieve that but it all came in the second half," he said.

"We had them to zero and then they scored 20 points in the second half. It's just not good enough."

On the other hand injured Blues co-coach Zac Masters was rapt in the fight his understrength side showed.

They went into the clash with two of their best forwards from last week, Jed Pearce and Brodie Mirtschin, and had to make a couple of late changes to their bench.

Things only got worse when Jordyn Maher (lip) and Blake Dean (shoulder) were injured after failing to prevent Walker scoring the opening try after six minutes.

"It's a bit like last week and I couldn't be prouder of the boys' effort," Masters said.

"Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong before the game with injuries, we were battling and had to call a couple of blokes in who probably weren't expecting to play first grade today but the effort from the whole group was amazing.

"It shows there's a lot of heart and a lot of spirit in the team and there's a lot to work with there."

Masters was also pleased to see the side finally put some points on the board, after crossing for just one try in their past two losses.

"We hadn't scored many points in the last couple of weeks, although we had missed a few opportunities, so it was good to score some points," he said.

However last year's minor premiers are off to their worst start since winning the wooden spoon.

Tumut will be looking to add to their lone win so far when they host Southcity at Twickenham on Sunday while Young host a Gundagai outfit fresh off another bye.

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