Bathurst Panthers defeat Orange Hawks in NRL curtain-raiser at Carrington Park

Played as a curtain-raiser to the NRL match between Penrith Panthers and Newcastle Knights, the hosts trailed 10-8 at the break but three second-half tries secured a 22-10 win for the Bathurst club.

Panthers skipper Jake Betts said it was a solid pre-season hit out after what was a slow start.

"I wasn't too worried about the result," he said.

"We were sort of scrappy in the first half going forward, going sideways and dropping the ball.

"We talked about that in the second half and we improved a little bit. We still went sideways a little bit but our defence, that was something I was really pleased with."

While there was a big crowd in attendance, Betts said he wasn't too fazed by the extra faces and noise.

"It was different but I wasn't really worried," he said.

"I was too buggered but it was good for Panthers and Hawks to play in a game like this. You don't get to do that very often."

Mackenzie Atkins opened the scoring for the hosts just three minutes into the clash, but Hawks would respond with two quick tries through Alex Prout and Chris Anderson to take a 10-4 lead after 15 minutes.

Panthers would respond seven minutes later as Joey Gunn crashed after, but Josh Rivett was unable to convert the extras.

The two teams would battle it out for the remainder of the half, but errors and penalties from both sides meant no team was unable to create considerable momentum and the scores remained unchanged.

11 minutes into the second half, Panthers hit the lead again when Keelan Bresac beat a number of Hawks players to go over. Rivett kicked his first conversion of the day and the hosts were up 14-10.

By the halfway mark through the second half, Hawks were mounting some considerable pressure on Panthers' defensive line thanks to a number of repeat sets.

Yet the Panthers defence would hold strong and ultimately make the move forward and score out wide through Charlie Hutchings. The conversion was unsuccessful and Panthers led 18-10.

With six minutes remaining on the clock, Rivett made a bursting 60-metre run down the field. From the resulting tackle, Hawks lock Nathan Potts was sin-binned after holding down the Panthers fullback for too long.

Panthers would score again through Hutchings.

Hawks coach Shane Rodney said it was a good hit out for his team.

"We got out what we needed to, got some guys plenty of minutes and I thought it was a pretty good quality game of football," he said.

"Both teams competed really well and both teams scored some good tries but there's plenty to work on as usual.

"I think everyone came through unscathed, which is what we wanted."

The Peter McDonald Premiership season is expected to kick-off on the weekend of April 9-10, with Panthers away to Wellington Cowboys and Orange Hawks hosting Dubbo CYMS.

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