New St Pat's recruits part of solid trial performance in Forbes

While the side has had a Kelso High flavour for a number of seasons in the form of Meredith Jones, Karah Logan and Emily Rhynehart, this year two of the Saints' star recruits have come off the back of those work place relationships too.

So when former CSU Mungoe Lily Walsh and ex-Orange CYMS five-eighth Sophie Stammers pulled on blue and white colours for the first time, there were familiar faces.

"Walshy is actually teaching at Kelso High with a lot of us, Sophie is at Kelso, I teach at Kelso, Emily teaches at Kelso, Karah is the deputy at Kelso," Jones laughed.

"With the juniors we've picked up, they are people we know because we are teachers too."

The experience that Walsh and Stammers bring to the Saints will be a big asset.

When the Blayney Bears beat St Pat's in the 2016 Group 10 grand final, it was off the back of a Stammers masterclass. She's got experience as a Western Ram and was a standout for runners-up CYMS last year.

Walsh was part of the all-conquering CSU side which dominated the Mid West competition then still proved to be a force last season when switching to Woodbridge Cup.

Though they still need to gel with their new team-mates, that many of those Saints are already mates will no doubt help.

It's those sort of bonds that helped the Saints to four consecutive Group 10 premierships and what they hope will continue to serve them well as they now join the new Western-wide premiership.

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Saturday's trial against Forbes gave the Saints some idea of what lies ahead.

Even in the absence of captain Mish Somers and hooker Rhynehart, the Saints posted a 16-6 win.

Fullback Erin Naden scored a pair of tries and set up Jones for the other and they did it in at times testing weather conditions too.

"The tee was down, the ball was there ready to go, Bronte [Emanuel] was ready to kick off for us and then the lightning came," Jones, who captained the side at Spooner Oval, said.

"We weren't off for long, the lightning passed pretty quickly, but then it was bucketing down, for like 10 minutes there was just heavy, heavy rain.

"After the rain stopped it was really hot, it was sticky, but we had pretty limited drops, so it was a good start.

"We didn't really have a kicker because Mish was out, our edges were new, we actually had new girls all across the field. With Emily out, Jas [Osborne] played at hooker.

"I think it was a really good hit out, we didn't get to train on the Wednesday before it because of the rain, so we only had one informal training session a few weeks earlier ... so we hadn't really had a run.

"We didn't make many errors and the few little mistakes we did make, everyone really supported each other so it wasn't a massive issue."

Just as Jones was happy with how the Saints played, she was impressed by Forbes as well.

At half-time the two sides were all square at 6-all.

"We had to make tough tags, we knew our defence had to be good. They've had Indy Draper come across, they've got a really young side, but it's a really good side, I think they are going to have a good year Forbes," Jones said.

"They're quick, they're fit and it's similar to us, they seem to get along well and are a bunch of fun girls. They look like they are going to have a promising year."

There was also a nice touch in the closing minutes of the game.

"They had a beautiful guy come on the wing and score for them at the end. Trae Merritt their league tag coach had teed it up for us, it was great," Jones said.

"Trae said he's been having a run with them, he's turned up to every single training session, he went to Canowindra with them - it's the best thing to see, he brings so much to the club.

"It really was just the best thing about the day, after it he went around and told everyone it was the best game he'd ever played."

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