Bathurst Panthers down St Pat's 22-20 in Anzac Trophy clash

A now annual fixture on the Group 10 premier league calendar involving Panthers and their Bathurst rivals St Pat's, this year's Anzac match was another fitting chapter in its history.

The Saints scored the first two tries of the contest, but Panthers fought back to take the lead then repelled a number of late raids to hold on for a narrow win.

Panthers captain-coach Doug Hewitt, who is at least a fortnight away from making a return from injury, admitted it was not the slickest of performances.

But he was proud of how much fight and heart his men showed.

"We made it hard on ourselves with too many errors, pushing passes in the ruck when we really didn't need to, but that we managed to stick together like that, it was good signs," he said.

"We spoke on that before the game that four weeks off [between games] doesn't help, it's not the perfect preparation. But the thing is that it's the local derby and the Anzac game as well, you've just got to get up for these games.

"Even though we could have thrown in the towel a couple of times, we kept finding something when we were low in the tank.

"We've got blokes coming from the right side to make tackles on the left-hand side for us - it just shows we've got a fair bit of hunger there. It was a good win to get, even though it was scrappy."

The game was just a tick over a minute old when the first scoring chance arose, Panthers five-eighth Willie Wright scooping up a grubber on his own line then slicing through the Saints defence.

He carried the ball to halfway, but his pass to fullback Josh Rivett who had arrived in support went to the ground. Missing that opportunity was made to sting even more soon after.

On nine minutes Saints captain-coach Luke Branighan floated a brilliant cut out pass onto the chest of Mitch Squires who - with a fend and a step - crossed for the opening try.

Six minutes later the Saints were in again, this time thanks to Jordan Naylor who beat several defenders as he ran away down the left wing.

Traie Merritt's sideline conversion struck the post, but the rebound was kind to make it 10-nil.

With the match a quarter gone Panthers hit back as Jack Siejka burrowed his way over. Wright's conversion pulled it back to 10-6.

While they spurned a number of chances via knock-ons, Panthers showed they could produce slick football when drawing level five out from the break.

After cleaning up a kick on his line, Louis Murphy then sliced through the Saints as Wright had done earlier.

His pass to Kevin Murray in support was good and while the Saints cover defence managed to drag him down, he played the ball quickly.

It ended up with Wright who drifted across the field before linking with winger Josh Small. He went over in the corner to make it 10-all at half-time.

The wrestle between the Bathurst rivals continued in the second stanza, Blake Seager steaming over for Panthers before Naylor muscled his way across the stripe 15 minutes later.

With Wright having converted from in front while the Saints' attempt went wide, Panthers led 16-14.

Though holding a narrow lead, Panthers had firstly second rower Siejka then prop Dane Thorogood limp from the field to place a strain on their pack.

But Brent Seager responded by upping his work rate - often taking multiple carries in a set - and when Blake Lawson crossed 14 from time it gave Panthers more of a buffer.

Pat's cut that buffer to just two points inside the final 10 minutes as Hudson White crossed and Garry Reilly converted, and the blue and whites rallied.

However, the Panthers held firm for the remainder to once again take the honours in the April derby.

After watching Panthers presented with the trophy once more, Saints hooker Hudson White admitted he and his team-mates had underestimated their rivals.

"I guess we just probably thought we were kings after the first couple of games - we weren't really expecting to come up against a side like that," he said.

"We just didn't step up like we should have.

"On a day like today I think aggression and passion takes over a little bit and you get in a bit of an arm-wrestle more than a game of footy. We bought into what they wanted us too and and at the end they came out just on top.

"It's definitely the best game to play all year, we all look forward to it. Unfortunately we haven't won it for a few years, we thought this might have been our year given the start to the season we had, but next year we'll be back and try again."