Pat’s kept the hosts on the back foot from the opening stages with sharp ball movement and a superior kicking game.

The win sets up a Bathurst derby with Panthers in a fight for the first grand final spot.

“I’m really happy with that. We’ve played really well over the last couple of weeks and we continued with that today,” Pat’s coach Mick Armstrong said.

“Blayney are a really good side and I said to the girls at half-time that we’ve got to stay on top of them. If we gave them any chances we knew they’d come back into the game.

“They scored a try there after half-time, but we were good enough to keep them out and get the win.”

Armstrong said his side learned their lesson from their 34-4 defeat at the hands of the Bears the last time they met.

“That last game was a bit of a wake-up call. They gave us a touch up when they deserved to win. It was great to turn that around today,” he said.

“On to Panthers now and they’re obviously the benchmark, having won last year and being minor premiers this year. It will be a test, but we’re looking forward to it.”

Both teams started the match strongly as they rolled through their sets before a well-placed Mish Somers grubber forced a goal-line dropout.

From that point on, six minutes in, Pat’s began to gain the ascendancy.

It led to an Elise Woods try out on the left wing the very next set.

The Bears’ best chance to score in the opening half came from a Sophie Stammers break shortly after the Woods try, but her 50-metre run didn’t lead to a result at the end of the set.

Instead, the visitors took the ball back down the other end to extend their lead to 10-0.

Emily Rhynehart’s try was almost an exact copy of the opening one for the Saints as they found an overlap on the left side.

Despite enjoying plenty of time in the Bears’ half, Pat’s were unable to extend their lead before the break.

Three minutes into the second half, Nicole Schneider’s break down the middle of the field eventually led to a Somers try.

The lead could have grown further shortly after but Somers’ grubber out to the right wing was just out of Meredith Jones’ reach.

Olivia Bird put on some good footwork to give the home side a sniff of a comeback, converting her own try to make it 16-6 to Pat’s.

When Steph Curtis finished off a good Pat’s play out to the right side of the park, with just three minutes to go, the result was confirmed.

ST PAT’S 22 (Elise Woods, Emily Rhynehart, Mish Somers, Steph Curtis tries; Somers 3 conversions) defeated BLAYNEY BEARS 6 (Olivia Bird try; Bird conversion)