St Pat's too strong for Wellington Cowboys in Peter McDonald Premiership

Saints five-eighth Matt Ranse scored a hat trick in the convincing victory, which was set up by an excellent opening 30 minutes of football from the hosts at Jack Arrow Sporting Complex.

The victory has taken the Saints ahead of their cross-city rivals Panthers into third place on the Group 10 ladder with just two rounds remaining.

Ranse said it was great to pick up a treble in front of the home crowd.

"I was a bit puffed out running the 100 metres for that first one at the start of the game but I got there. It was a good game for the boys," he laughed.

"Wello really took it to us for a while there. I thought that their defence was pretty strong as well. We just stuck to our game plan and that's what got us through.

"As soon as we go away from our game plan that's when it goes wrong for us, but we our completions were good today."

Ranse said an early scare from the Cowboys forced the team to re-focus in defence.

"The plan going into the game was to not let them score so Zac [Merrit, coach] gave us a bit of a spray there at the back of the try line after their first one," he said.

"That was some poor defence, and that came from us getting away from our game plan, but we fixed that and put on some points after that."

Pat's had gone into the match with plenty of respect for a Wellington side travelling to Bathurst off the back of their first victory of the season.

And when the Saints' Jackson Brien and Lee McClintock both scored early tries to set up an 8-0 lead Cowboys found a converted try to get themselves back within two points, letting the hosts know that they were ready to battle.

However, from there the enthusiasm of the Cowboys couldn't match the standard of play that Pat's brought to the field.

Zac Merritt barged across before Ranse scored two tries in quick succession to have the hosts up 26-8 at the half hour mark, and the Saints would maintain that score until the break.

Jack O'Neill and Hayden Bolam effectively shut down any hopes of a Cowboys comeback shortly after the game resumed thanks to their tries.

Cowboys' Warren Peachey added some respectability to the scoreline with his team's second try of the day just before the hour mark arrived but the Saints weren't done delivering the points.

Ranse completed his hat trick in the 68^th minute before Brien claimed his double in the shadows of full-time.

"Jacko had a really good game, with his double, and I thought Lee was also great but it was a really great team performance from the boys," Ranse said.

Pat's will now face Lithgow Workies next weekend in their last game of the regular season before they earn a guaranteed two points with a last-round bye.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: