ST Pat’s prop Riley Cheshire demonstrated exactly why he earned a NSW Country under 18s jumper this year when he scored the match-winning try against Bathurst Panthers on Friday night.
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He surged through the arms of numerous Panthers defenders on their line and grounded the ball to make it 32-28 with four minutes remaining in the Group 10 derby. That’s how it stayed.
It was his second try of the match at Carrington Park and iced not only an impressive come from behind win, but the Saints’ first victory.
Panthers had begun the under 18s contest the better of the two sides with two tries inside the opening six minutes, but Cheshire helped swing things back in the Saints favour.
From the Saints’ first attacking set of the match he burst through Panthers defence to score.
Lock Luke Bain, who also got through a mountain of work, levelled things up at the 13th minute mark before a Cheshire off-load saw Michael Latu over.
When Latu, who was a constant danger at five-eighth, scored his second under the sticks to give Adam Booth an easy conversion, the Saints led 22-10.
But in the shadows of half-time a smart grubber from Panthers hooker Braydon Wicks set up Andrew Bennett and marked another switch in momentum.
Wicks levelled things up two minutes into the second half when he dived over from dummy half then converted his own try.
Nick Tilburg was the next to cross as Panthers took a 28-22 lead, but late tries to Latu and Cheshire saw Pat’s steal the win.
