Hawks hit back when half Steve Morgan kicked an errant Laurie pass ahead for himself before linking with centre Kyle Byrnes who almost found the line himself, before winger Josh Hunt scored two tackles later.

At 12-6 the game was up for grabs but two more tries in the space of three minutes to Heath Falkenmire and Mick Schrader had Pat’s in front 22-6 at half-time.

Hawks had to score first in the second half to have any chance of winning, but it wasn’t to be.

Plummer scored from a good Falkenmire pass straight after the break, which was followed shortly after by a Hemsworth try from dummy half and Laurie’s first and at 38-6 the match was as good as over.

Hawks stopped the bleeding briefly after Brett Morgan regathered a Ryan Prevett kick to score, and when Jace Delaney added another, the Orange side had recovered somewhat to 36-16.

From there the game deteriorated through plenty of dropped ball, and Pat’s well and truly buried the match with late tries from Laurie and Hemsworth.

Laurie steered his side around methodically all match, and behind dominant forward displays from Wade Judd, Brent Dennis and Matt Lawson he was allowed plenty of room to move. Lock Matt Tillwey was also instrumental particularly in the opening 20 minutes.

For Hawks, Prevett and second-rower Todd Barrow led the way, while Steve Morgan at half-back was dangerous.

St Pat’s coach Kevin Grimshaw was happy with the win but knows that a big test is just around the corner as his side heads to Mudgee next week.

“It was a good game to have after last week’s win, the plan was to keep it simple in the first half and we did that,” he said. “We had a light week in the lead-up to the game but that will change ahead of Mudgee next Sunday - that could be a match that decides the minor premiership.”

ST PAT’S 50 (Josh Laurie 2, Trent Hemsworth 2, Heath Falkenmire, Cameron Plummer, Mick Schrader, Mick Armstrong, Brent Dennis tries, Hemsworth 7 goals) defeated ORANGE HAWKS 16 (Josh Hunt, Jace Delaney, Brett Morgan tries, Todd Barrow 2 goals).