Brien bulldozes Hawks as his switch to second row reaps a hat-trick

The Saints player picked up a hat trick in his side's 36-14 win over the Orange Hawks in the club's first home game of the season at Jack Arrow Sporting Complex.

Both sides were quick to point out it wasn't their finest performances of the season but the Saints' early defensive work and big first half performances from Jake Anlezark and Luke Single gave them a platform to build on.

That early energy, plus a spate of dropped balls and penalties from the visitors, allowed Pat's to run out to a 20-0 lead at the break.

Brien scored twice during a much more evenly contested, though scrappy, second half of football to complete his hat trick.

Brien said it was nice after last week's washed out game to get on the board in front of a home crowd.

"It's great to get out there and play again, and good to get the win. Last week was a bit unfortunate but stuff like that happens," he said.

"Playing second row is only a couple more in, and I've been wanting to play there for a few years, so it's nice to score a couple of tries there."

As for whether we can expect to see him spending the season in that role?

"Maybe? It'll depend how the fitness goes," Brien said.

St Pat's hooker Jack O'Neill was sin binned for dissent just a few minutes into the game.

When the Saints were able to survive the 12-man period without giving away any points Brien said gave the team a big mental boost.

"We dropped the ball off the kick-off, which didn't help, but then we defended for probably five sets. We only had 12 players for that too," he said.

"We probably fell asleep for a little bit towards the end of the second half but we were able to come back. There were a few one percenters from the boys that helped make it happen."

For Hawks coach Shane Rodney and his team - who now have one win from four games this year - it's back to the drawing board.

"I think they came here thinking they were going to turn up and get the job done, but they didn't start well. There were errors, we weren't getting out of our own end and there were penalties - all which were our own doing," he said.

"Pat's tackled harder, ran harder, and ended up putting a fair few points on us. If we brought maybe 10 per cent more energy it could have been a different story, but for whatever reason our boys didn't turn up with that today."

Not only did St Pat's survive being down a player, they scored through Aaron Mawhinney.

Then they pushed the advantage out to 14-0 in just about as many minutes when Matt Beattie and Brien each scored on the left edge.

Things got worse for the visitors when fullback Ryan Manning had to be carried from the field with an injury.

Mitch Andrews once again got his name on the score sheet by picking up a try just before half-time.

Hawks' Lachie Lawson gave his side a chance of a comeback with an early try in the second half, only for Pat's to immediately reply through Brien.

The trading of tries in a scrappy second half of football continued when the Saints' Caleb Wardman got on the end of a chip kick and Hawks five-eighth Sandon Gibbs-O'Neill slipped through the defence.

Brien's hat trick try came on the hour mark when he hit the line hard from close range.

One of the Hawks' nicest pieces of team play sadly came inside the last two minutes of the game when Rakai-Manaia Tuheke completed a well-worked team try.