ROTA Setu tore Blayney’s left edge to shreds at King George Oval on Sunday afternoon, scoring a hat-trick inside the first half hour of his Mudgee Dragons’ clash with the Bears, inspiring the red and whites to a comfortable victory.

Playing centre, Rota bustled his way over the line in the first, 11th and 27th minutes of the match-up, while five more of his Dragons teammates helped themselves to tries as well in the 42-28 victory.

The win shoots the Dragons to the top of the Group 10 premier league table and pushes Blayney down to fifth.

“That’s seven (tries) in two weeks (for Setu),” Dragons coach Tony Pascoe said.

“He’s a classy player, he knows how the find the line.”

While Setu was superb on the right edge, Mudgee gained ascendency and went a long way to winning the clash through the middle third of the paddock.

The Dragons’ forward pack outmuscled their Blayney counterparts and made big metres around the ruck, giving halves Jared Robinson and Tim Condon ample time to release their outside men.

The Bears weren’t trampled by any means though, they stayed in touch with the Dragons for 60 minutes but, being a man down - Terawhiti Cooper was sent-off on half-time for striking - fatigue eventually set in and Mudgee took advantage, scoring four of their tries in the final 20 minutes.

“Yes and no,” Dragons coach Tony Pascoe said when asked if he pleased with his troops’ performance.

“It’s always hard work over here. It’s tough to come to Blayney and win and they won their first two so they’d obviously been doing something right.

“But I’m not happy with the way we played. It’s just early season stuff (we need to improve on), discipline with the ball, organisation, that kind of thing.”

Mudgee fullback Nathan Orr broke the line in the first set of the game and found a rampaging Setu in support, who made light work of finding the line to open the scoring.

Two sets later, with their first use of the ball, Bears winger Jacob Sutherland dived on a Matty Fuller chip kick to score, with Lachie Hobby nailing the sideline conversion to lock it up at 6-6.

Setu went over in the 11th, barging his way over from close range, before Blayney centre Carter Hirini scored - again from a Fuller kick - to keep the Bears in touch. Setu’s conversion kept Mudgee in the lead at 12-10 though, with Hobby missing his shot.

The former Samoan rugby union international completed his hat-trick four minutes later, converting his own try. The score remained at 18-10 until after half-time.

Just before the break a mid-field stoush saw Cooper and Setu share pleasantries, which ended in the former being sent off for striking.

While they were down a man Bobbie Brown, Will Ingram and Tom Leary all scored tries for the Bears, but Mudgee bettered that by running in five of their own - through Zac Adams, Chris Ward, Camden Sutton, Jared Robinson and Orr.

MUDGEE DRAGONS 42 (Rota Setu 3, Chris Ward, Zac Adams, Camden Sutton, Jared Robinson, Nathan Orr tries; Setu 5 goals) def BLAYNEY BEARS 28 (Jacob Sutherland, Carter Hirini, Bobbie Brown, Will Ingram, Tom Leary tries; Lachie Hobby 2, Brown, Ingram goals)