ST PAT’S are the first team through to this year’s Group 10 ladies league tag grand final after a 16-12 comeback victory over cross-city rivals Bathurst Panthers at Wade Park on Sunday.
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The Saints recovered from a 12-4 deficit at half-time to book a spot in their fourth league tag decider.
Pat’s captain Karah Armstrong said it was another hard-fought Bathurst derby to add to the record books.
“It was a fast and intense game. It’s always a close one between us,” she said.
“They came out fired up and they had us on the back foot. In the second half we got ourselves into the game a bit more. Before that we were struggling to complete our sets and getting penalised before getting to the kick.”
Panthers got on the board first with a converted try to Emma Miller before Pat’s were able to bring the score back to 6-4 through Jess Scadding.
Before the break Panthers managed to extend their lead thanks to a try for captain Monique Christie-Johnson.
Pat’s showed plenty of improvement in the second half and got themselves back within two points when Lisa Griffiths got on the end of a kick to score.
Sarah Watterson capped off the comeback victory for the Saints when her intercept led to a try.
Armstrong said there’s still plenty to work on going into the decider.
“It will mostly be on our tagging. We usually find ourselves to be good taggers but they scored both their tries from our missed tags,” she said.
Panthers now play the Blayney Bears at Carrington Park this Sunday for the remaining grand final spot.
“We started really well and played a great first half but we found ourselves falling asleep a bit at the start of the second half,” Christie-Johnson said.
“We played a panicked game in the second half and it showed because we weren’t executing our set plays.
“To play like we did in the second half and to only lose by four points is a positive for us.”
