Young were under no illusion it would be an easy match and prepared for Wagga to come out firing.

The Brothers wasted no time in putting points on the board after crossing the line in the opening minutes of the game. The conversion was unsuccessful.

In reply Young’s powerhouse prop Aaron Slater - a regular name on Group Nine’s team of the week - bullied his way over the line to even the score. The try was converted to put Young in the lead, 6-4.

Another play by Young saw James Woolford offload to standout prop Kyle Richens who scored the ‘Pickers’ second try of the day. The try was converted, 12-4.

Not to be out-done, Wagga put another six points on the board, but their efforts were short-lived when Young’s Kiwi signing Denvour Kiel planted another of his spectacular tries in the far right corner with five minutes remaining. 

Young had the final say of first half when captain-coach Neil Thorman found Will Scott who scored under the posts with three minutes to go, taking the score to 22-10.

Ten minutes into second half Young found themselves in defensive mode as Wagga broke through after hammering their line, 22-16.

The blows kept on coming for the then undermanned Young side as Woolford earned himself 10 minutes in the sin bin. 

Young were able to capitalise on an error by the Brothers resulting in Slater busting through their defence before flicking the ball to Kiwi signing Pene Webber who crossed the line, taking the score to 28-16.

That 12-point lead would soon come crashing down around the ‘Pickers as the Brothers found a second wind to score from a 40 metre break, 28-22.

A field goal by Matt Murray was followed by a quick Brothers try who continued to close the gap on Young, 29-28.

With only three minutes to go Wagga scored again, much to the crowd’s delight, 29-32.

With the clock ticking down only 30 seconds remained in the match. Thorman went short off the kickoff which was regathered by Murray, before the ‘Pickers set up for a finish in the corner by Kiel in what’s become his signature move.

Final score Young 35, Brothers 32.

“It’s quite a tough situation to be in,” Thorman said.

“When you see the team momentum swing in the game sometimes it’s tough to get back, usually you have to defend a set of six out and go back to your game plan, although we weren’t able to do that. 

“We had to chase the game in the last minute.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we didn’t think it was going to be that close.”

Looking back on the match Thorman said the ‘Pickers should have “killed it off” coming in at half time while they held a 22-16 lead.

“Our defence would be good for maybe the first four tackles and one lapse of concentration would easily let Wagga through and led to them scoring and putting them back into the game,” he said.

“And with James Woolford being sin binned for 10 that didn’t help us.

“I think in the last part of the game players were fatigued as they had to work a bit harder without him being on the field and without him there to lead us around.”

Despite recording their third consecutive win Thorman says there’s still room for improvement.

“Our strengths is our pack, I thought our forwards went very well,” he said.

“At the moment our standout players are Aaron Slater and Kyle Richens who do big minutes for us and their influence and effort in the game shows when they’re on the field.

“Defensively it needs to improve.

“We need to beat teams around us which we are doing at the moment, but we know that although Albury are coming off the back of a loss it will be a competitive game [this week] and we need to put on a better defensive display.

“Attacking comes quite naturally to us and we are capable of scoring pretty much anywhere on the field.”

Young now eagerly awaits the arrival of French signings Geoffrey Zava and Lilian Albert this week who are expected to arrive in time for this weekend’s Round 8 match against Albury.

In the meantime the Cherrypickers welcomed Figian players Atunaisa Waranabogi Kabakora and Waisea Biu who arrived in town yesterday.

The duo will join Young’s Reserve Grade ranks as part of Young’s relationship with Fiji’s Korolevu Ruggers team.

In other results Reserve Grade lost 22-32, League Tag went down 12-34, Under 18s lost 4-28 and the Under 16s were defeated 16-36.