Taking advantage of a plethora of two blues errors, Bathurst St Pat’s handed Orange Hawks their first defeat of 2017 in Sunday’s Group 10 league tag major semi-final at Wade Park.
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An uncharacteristic showing from the previously undefeated minor premiers, Hawks’ ball-handling left plenty to be desired and St Pat’s took full advantage to win through to their fourth straight grand final.
Despite running into the strong wind at Wade Park St Pat’s led 12-4 at the half-time break, adding two more tries to Hawks’ one in the second period to win 20-10.
“It’s a great result, to score three tries running into that breeze in the first half really set it up. It’s outstanding,” St Pat’s coach Mick Armstrong said.
“Having the week off will be really good for us, we can relax a bit.
“Hawks hadn’t been in this position before but they’ll be better for the run against Bathurst Panthers next weekend, we’ll sit back and watch that, it’ll be cracker I think.”
Hawks coach Marty Lyden was at a bit of a loss to explain his side’s performance, suggesting maybe his troops just “weren’t switched on”.
“I think maybe that was it, we were flat, against a team like you have to be switched on all the time. We didn’t use the wind as well as St Pat’s did either,” Lyden said.
“Better the loss comes now than in a grand final I guess, it was definitely one of our worst games of the year.
“We’re a much better side than what we showed, so we’re looking forward to playing Panthers (in the preliminary final).”
St Pat’s camped in Hawks’ end in the opening stages of the game, errors forcing the two blues onto the back foot.
With halfback Mish Somers directing traffic, the Saints’ possession advantage told. Meredith Jones dived over in the ninth minute.
It took a stunning chase from Hawks’ Erin Naden to cut Elise Woods down short two tackles after the restart, but the Saints’ centre found her way over late in the set anyway.
Hawks hit back, through Tegan Dray, but Somers found space and handed Jakiya Whitfield a four-pointer in the 22nd minute to push St Pat’s lead to 12-4.
Sarah Watterson scored for the Saints just after half-time, giving St Pat’s a 16-4 lead with 20 to go.
Naden scooped up a loose ball and went 80 metres to hit back for the two blues, but they couldn’t find their way through again.
Bronte Emanuel scored from an intercept with 10 minutes to go, and on the back of Somers’ boot, St Pat’s closed out the upset win expertly.
- BATHURST ST PAT’S 20 (Meredith Jones, Elise Woods, Jakiya Whitfield, Sarah Watterson, Bronte Emanuel tries) def ORANGE HAWKS 10 (Tegan Dray, Erin Naden tries; Bec Ford goal)