ST Pat’s may have displayed the sort of spirit in defence that made them worthy winners of the inaugural ANZAC Day Rugby League Memorial Trophy on Friday night, holding off wave after wave of Bathurst Panthers attack to win 32-6, yet coach Kurt Hancock knows his men put themselves under pressure.

Wearing special ANZAC jumpers at Carrington Park, hosts Bathurst Panthers were primed to take down the Group 10 premier league defending premiers and they certainly had enough ball in attacking position to do so.

They had four sets on the Saints’ line in the opening 10 minutes alone, yet their only joy of the evening was to come in the 65th minute.

That gave them a sniff at 14-6 down, but in the minutes that remained Hancock’s men ran in four quick tries to win the first Bathurst derby of 2015.

“We’ve worked hard on our defence throughout the pre-season, so it is good to see that we are starting to build a season on that. It was a good effort but we can’t keep doing it, the guys were pretty gassed there midway through the second half,” Hancock said.

“I don’t know what we can do. We have been on the wrong end of the penalty count now two weeks in a row, so we have to pick our discipline up.”

In a match which saw niggle throughout, numerous penalties and three men sin-binned in Pat’s Brady Cheshire and Panthers duo Brayden Cassidy and Blake Lawson, it was quickly apparent a win would have to be hard earned.

Panthers props Greg Behan and Brent Seager repeatedly hit the line hard and Pat’s responded by throwing three and four men into the tackles to bring them down. That sort of contest typified the evening.

“Today means a lot, especially when you throw something into the mix like a trophy on a special day, for ANZAC Day. It means there is going to be passion, it’s going to be fiery and it’s going to be heated,” Hancock said.

On the back of two consecutive losses to start 2015, Panthers came out strong and camped on Pat’s line for the opening 10 minutes of the match.

But the Saints repelled Panthers each time they charged at the line before dealing their rivals a blow.

On their third set of the match the blue and whites found reward, five-eighth Garry Reilly splitting open Panthers’ defence before sending halves partner Tim Holman over with a nice flick pass.

Reilly added the extras to make it 6-0 after 15 minutes.

While Panthers responded to that try with more pressure, lock Jake Betts taking multiple hit ups each set, Pat’s snuffed out any dangerous looking plays. Winger Curtis Boardman came up with a particularly important ball-and-all tackle on Jason Hewitt in the 20th minute – if the Panthers centre had been able to off-load, Josh Small would have had a clear passage to the line.

Again after absorbing such pressure the Saints responded with a try, a smart kick from a scrum inside their own half setting up fleet-footed winger Adam Morton who beat Panthers’ custodian Cassidy in a sprint to the ball.

Ten minutes out from half-time the Saints were in again, this time capitalising on back-to-back penalties as Boardman went over in the right corner.

Finding themselves down 14-0 when the second half got underway despite having had the edge in terms of possession and field position, the Panthers mounted another strong attacking push.

Again there was no joy.

Betts was held up over the line and while Sandon Gibbs-O’Neill looked to have scored soon after, he too was ruled to not have grounded the ball.

The frustration told as three players were sin-binned for an on-field altercation, Cassidy also placed on report for the incident.

Finally Panthers cracked Pat’s defence when a Joey Bugg bomb led to a Jay McClintock try and as coach Todd Barrow converted, the men in black were in with a chance at 14-6 with 15 minutes left.

But Panthers knocked-on from the kick-off and with that momentum was gone. Pat’s ran in four late tries – Reilly setting up Dave Howard who then returned the favour, debutant Hudson White got his name on the scoresheet and Morton posted his second with 96 seconds left.

Hancock said he was a little nervous before the late flurry of tries, but knew his men had it within them to hold on to their advantage.

“The boys know not to panic, we know we have heaps of points in us. We know we have just got to get through our sets and obviously we will get points on the back of them, especially if our defence is good enough,” he said.

ST PAT’S 32 (Adam Morton 2, Dave Howard, Curtis Boardman, Garry Reilly, Tim Holman, Hudson White tries; Garry Reilly 2 goals) defeated BATHURST PANTHERS 6 (Jay McClintock try; Todd Barrow goal)