St Pat's under 18s must improve completion rates to beat Orange Hawks

In a match which pits the top two sides in the Tom Nelson Premiership's Group 10 pool, the Saints will host the currently undefeated Orange Hawks at Jack Arrow Oval.

Saints coach Matt Dunn rates it as "one of the biggest tests of the season", which is exactly why he's calling for a 'zero offset'.

Last weekend while ultimately beating the Cowra Magpies 34-12, the Saints didn't complete a single set in the first half.

Do that against Hawks and the blue and whites will be left black and blue.

"Our discipline and dropped ball have not been great, our first halves in our last two games have been very, very average," Dunn said.

"Against Cowra we probably bombed three or four tries in the first half. We kicked on the second tackle after making a break, kicked on the third tackle after making a break.

"We didn't complete a set in the first half unfortunately either, the completions were horrendous. I reckon we knocked on eight or 10 times, just basic errors.

"There are things to like in that we haven't played well against CYMS or Cowra, but we still managed to get the wins. But if we do that against Hawks, that will be a different story."

After seven rounds of the Tom Nelson Premiership, Hawks boast the best attacking record of the 12 teams.

Dunn knows the Orange side has quality right across the park and speaks of his rivals with the utmost respect.

"Hawks are probably one of the sides to beat. They won the under 16s grand final last year, they were the dominant side in their age group the year before," he said.

"I think they're a class side, I don't think there's a weakness across the park with them and they have a lot of rep players.

"They had two in the Greater Western side with Henry [Oates], they had Western Rams, they've got Harry Wald, Kaydden Hoad, Connor Vardanega, Ethan Young, Harry Kukla they've basically got a rep side as their starting 13.

"There's not many kids in their complete squad who haven't played rep at some stage, so a very, very strong side."

The Saints will be without barnstorming prop Regan Stait, who scored two tries against Cowra, and Jack Branda for the clash with Hawks.

However, Dunn still has the talent within his squad to be able to be able to upset Hawks.

Fullback Alex Davies and centre Jaccob Kelleher bring experience to the back line, forwards Henry Oates, Dylan Branda and Riley Hancock are metre-eaters who whack in defence, while hooker Seb Klein asks plenty of questions around the ruck.

"If we can put two good halves of footy together we've got the team there that is capable of pushing the top sides," Dunn said.

"If we can match them in that first sort of 15 we'll be right because they can blow you off the park very quickly."

No matter the result, Sunday's clash will give Dunn a good idea of how his side is positioned.

While his week-to-week aim is naturally for his side to win as many games as possible, he is hoping that the Saints can be one of the leading Group 10 pool sides heading into the finals.

"We've set ourselves the goal of that top two because you get a second bite at the semis if you need it. But we also finished third last year and won right through to the grand final," he said.

"It's probably not something I've particularly thought about, but that's your end game, that's where you want to be, hopefully that top two so you can get that second bit in the semis.

"On any given day any side can beat anyone in this competition ... so you've got to make sure you keep winning along the way."

Sunday's match will kick off at 11.30am at Jack Arrow Oval.

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