It was the Riverina side who had the first real chance of the game with Hayden Ashcroft getting over the line before it was pulled back for a knock-on.

With 14 minutes gone the Bulls were able to take the lead after getting a repeat set close to the line, Liam Wiscombe was able to score next to the post.

Monaro answer soon after with an intercept try before scoring right on half time to take an 8-6 lead into the break.

The Riverina side was the stronger side in the first half, and coach Jody Rudd admitted his team should have been ahead at the break.

"They gave us a lot of chances when they made quite a few errors in the first half and really we probably had an opportunity to score one or two more tries," he said.

"You go in at half time with a lead, and it gives you that little bit of confidence."

It was a different story in the second half with the visiting Monaro side able to score seven tries in the second forty minutes to run away with the 40-point victory.

"Our guys are just not use to playing at that level for long periods of time," he said.

"We came out in the second half and made a couple of errors, and they got a bit of a roll-on, and we just couldn't recover."

Rudd admitted their needs to be changes made to the set-up to ensure that the Bulls are more competitive in next year's competition.

"Admittedly we probably did draw the top two teams this year, so we lucked out a bit there," he said.

"It is difficult to get to that level and to play at that intensity when you have guys driving two and a half hours and three hours every Saturday morning just to have a run.

"We probably had half a dozen runs before this tournament started so I think we have to find a different way of doing it.

"There are a lot of things that we need to think about during this season to be better than what we were this season."

RELATED