If there were any doubts left as to whether St Pat’s would be fighting fit for Group 10 premier league finals those were washed away with a 24-4 win at Carrington Oval over the Mudgee Dragons.
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After an opening 40 minutes full of poor discipline and scrappy play from both teams to leave it at 4-all for half-time, Pat’s blew the visitors off the park in the back half of the match.
It’s now the fifth win in a row for the resurgent Saints, and turned the tables on the Dragons following their huge 50-6 win at home earlier in the season.
“We didn’t stick to the plan at the start but we hung in there and we said that’s what we had to do against Mudgee because they can blow you off the park pretty early,” Pat’s coach Kurt Hancock said.
“I know they had a few players out but they still played that power game and were still pretty good around the ruck. We minimised that to a certain degree and I knew that we would finish on top of them because of the hard work that the boys were putting in.
“They found out a fair bit about themselves. That’s what we spoke about at half-time, that they’ll keep going and that they’re a tough side. It was probably one of the most physical games I’ve seen this season.”
Mudgee started the match on the front foot with their direct play through the middle of the park giving them easy metres.
Second row pairing Zac Adams and Demitrius Ainuu were often causing headaches for the Saints in the opening 20 minutes with their strong hit-ups.
The Dragons got even more fired up in attack after Garry Reilly was penalised for leading into a tackle with his knees, which would ramp up the tension between the teams for the rest of the match.
That building Dragons pressure led to a try for Balin Lenard, whose slippery footwork saw him bust several tackles on his way to the line.
Pat’s were able to find a response before half-time through Derryn Clayton whose diving effort levelled the scores.
A 90 metre run from Reilly saw him held up over the line ten minutes into the second half, but it sparked the hosts into life.
Moments later Luke Newsome went agonisingly close to finding a try in his farewell match when his attempt was ruled a double movement.
Reilly was at it again when his leaping intercept and subsequent offload allowed winger Adam Morton the chance to run almost the length of the field to score.
A Benjamin John cut-out ball then put a fast-running Matt Tilley into space which took the score out to 16-4.
Tensions boiled over in a scuffle 15 minutes from full-time that saw Brady Cheshire of Pat’s and Ben Thompson from Dragons sin binned.
It did little to stop the Pat’s momentum as a Reilly penalty goal pushed the lead out beyond two converted tries.
Hudson White finished things off for Pat’s when he found a try diving over from dummy half.
A depleted Dragons side would still have been confident they could find success at Bathurst given their second place on the ladder but were out-enthused as the minutes ticked by.
One of those injured players was captain-coach Jack Afamasaga who said his team were simply outplayed in the second half.
“I think the fact we had a few players out and a few structural changes didn’t help, but today I think the boys just got beaten by the better side,” he said.
“The boys will get back to training and do what they do best, and that’s like every other week as well.”
ST PAT’S 24 (Derryn Clayton, Matt Tilley, Adam Morton, Hudson White tries; Garry Reilly 4 goals) defeated MUDGEE DRAGONS 4 (Balin Lenard try)