The under 16s were just edged out by Monaro at Pambula on Saturday.

Coach Ben Mott was left to rue a few missed opportunities after the Andrew Johns Cup side conceded a late try to fall 18-6.

"It definitely didn't go according to plan but we were far from disgraced," Mott said.

"We weren't quite there with our 'good-ball' sets.

"We didn't stay composed enough or get the shape we worked on leading into it.

"In fairness to Monaro they were pretty brave, we expected them to be and they were."

Monaro opened the scoring after 15 minutes and then doubled their lead after capitalising on a simple mistake coming off their own line.

Down 12-0, the Bulls weren't able to take advantage of Xavier Cacciotti being sent off right after half-time.

Max Harland was also given his marching orders over the incident but returned from the sin bin to score Riverina's lone try of the clash.

His effort with seven minutes remaining gave Riverina a chance, but another mistake off the restart proved costly as Monaro crossed late.

Mott thought the team made too many mistakes in good opportunities throughout the game, which was played in wet conditions.

"The first half was about a 43 per cent completion rate and the second half wouldn't have been much better," he said.

"It doesn't make it easy at this level of footy to win like that unfortunately.

"They did show some ticker and if we did hold the ball in those last couple of sets we probably do come back at them."

Elvis Nauer-Wood, Noah Killeen, Billy Corcoran and Jared McKinnon were among the best for the side.

Riverina will host Western at Leeton No.1 Oval on Sunday in age groups.

However the Bulls were well beaten in the Laurie Daley Cup clash later in the day.

Monaro jumped out to a quick start, scoring three tries in the first 12 minutes.

Jett Liu got Riverina on the board after 18 minutes but Riverina trailed 24-6 at half-time.

Monaro extended their lead after the break before tries to Will Casey and Ethan Gilchrist added a little respectability to the scoreboard for Riverina.

Coach Tim Humphries thought the side made far too many mistakes in the 34-14 loss.

"There were just too many fundamental mistakes," Humphries said.

"We turned the ball over too early, fumbled in the play-the-ball and gave away too many penalties.

"They were a quality side, you can't take that away from them, but we will just have to go back to the drawing board and start again to prepare this week for Western."

Humphries is hopeful a number of niggling injury concerns won't stop having his full squad at his disposal.

Western have proven to be tough rivals in the past but had mixed results for their opening match ups.

Illawarra-South Coast scored a 26-4 win in the Andrew Johns Cup however the Rams responded to score a 24-10 win over the Dragons in the Laurie Daley Cup clash at Cowra.

In an ominous sign for the Laurie Daley Cup side, Western scored a good win in a trial leading into the representative season.

"They gave us a fair football lesson at Forbes so it is a tough task ahead," Humphries said.

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