Eight years ago the junior side was taking to the field against some top competitors.

Included in this Footy Flashback edition we bring you some images from that season, as well as a report from a senior Leeton Phantoms match that featured some of these young players.

THE Phantoms have had yet another admirable loss, this time going down to defending premiers Waratahs 37-24 at the Murrumbidgee College ground.

With a severe player shortage due to injury and unavailability, Leeton went into the game knowing it would have to play a full 80 minutes or suffer on the scoreboard.

While having to face up to another loss, coach Greg Horton was still happy with how his side performed given the circumstances.

"It was a good game, we played well," Horton said.

"We did what we said we needed to do. We knew we were going to be understrength, but we knew we had to get in their face."

The Wagga side, sitting in third place on the ladder, took the Phantoms to task early, forcing the home side to defend firecely in their 22.

To their credit, the Phantoms managed to score first against the run of play as Michael Wright and then Jed Taylor broke open the Waratahs defence down the middle and right wing. Coming back left, the ball ended up in the mighty hands of Joe Koafoa-Pene who twisted and barged over, giving Max Graham a relatively easy conversion.

Waratahs responded with a penalty goal before hitting back with two tries to lead 15-7 at half-time.

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The strength of the Phantoms' forwards had the Waratahs wary all game and that strength led to two tries to stand-in captain Stefan Carnegie as the Waratahs' pack was pushed backwards.

Even with the yellow-carding of Zac Tarlinton, Waratahs were not keen to use their 8-7 advantage in the scrum following a penalty 10 metres out, instead playing the ball quickly through the scrum and passing the ball wide to score.

After Carnegie's first try, Waratahs stretched the lead to 25-12 before Tarlinton returned to the field to score after scrambled play from a dropped ball.

Waratahs scored twice more, but Phantoms recovered the ball from the last restart, leading to a rolling maul that gave Carnegie his second.

Horton agreed that, like Albury two weeks before, Waratahs had underestimated the Phantoms.

"That doesn't take anything away from how we played," he said.

"We scored three forwards tries. They scored twice in the 10 minutes Tarlo (Zac Tarlinton) was off the field.

"Stefan Carnegie and Danny Booth directed traffic really well. Frank Galluzzo, who usually plays about 10 minutes in the seconds, played a full game."

Horton also praised lock Tim Rolls for his best game of the season.