After being thrashed by Western last weekend, the under 18s regrouped with a strong performance as it finished locked at 24-all.

Despite missing out on the win, coach Tim Humphries was pleased with how the team responded to the 44-10 loss.

"I'll settle for the draw as they really come back and fixed up the defence," Humphries said.

"We had massive issues with our defensive line, they were pushing through us, so we up the defence but on the back of that we have a little bit to do on our mistakes.

"Defensively I was really proud of them in that heat but we have to have a little more concentration around those little mistakes."

Riverina centre James Morgan opened the scoring after 22 minutes only for his side to trail 12-6 at half-time.

However the Bulls had a perfect start to the second half when a Jacob Lucas 40-20 attempt bounced up perfectly for the chasing Thomas Fattore to score.

Riverina went back in front when Young flyer Thomas Jenkins went 80 metres to score.

Monaro responded however Blake Wood gave the visitors the lead again when he scored from dummy half.

Ashton Naidu scored in the corner to level things once more.

Monaro looked like they were going in the opposite corner with minutes left only for some brilliant cover defence from Wood ensured the draw.

Wood moved to fullback for the game and impressed.

He was one of a number of positional in response to their performance in round two.

Second rower Harry Fitzpatrick switched sides of the field with Cody Collins on the left and the more prove effective.

However in the Andrew Johns Cup, Riverina couldn't sustain their strong start to fall 28-16.

Riverina led 10-6 at half-time courtesy of tries to Ben Rumble and Logan Collins and despite Feata Tauaneai scoring early in the second half the under 16s side conceded the last three tries of the game to bring up their second loss from the first three rounds.

Both teams will look to get back to winning ways on the road against Penrith Panthers on Saturday.

Penrith are coming off big wins in both age divisions over GSR Tigers.

Humphries expects a tough challenge.

"They have a big junior base up there and I'm not expecting anything different from any of the sides we play," he said.

"I think they are going to be very, very strong."

The Andrew Johns Cup kicks off at St. Mary’s Leagues Stadium at 10am with the Laurie Daley Cup to follow.

It is a big day of representative footy with the women's and under 23s Country Championships campaigns also getting under way.

The women play Newcastle at 12.50pm before the under 23s and 2pm.

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