Maitland Blacks wing Jordan Bower scored four tries in a man of the match performance as his side ran out 48-24 winners against University of Newcastle.
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Bower was irrepressible combining pace, power and skill to leave the University defence flat footed.
The highlight was a 90-metre try finished by Bower after skipper Carl Manu spread the ball from a ruck deep in defence to Josh McCormack who broke through the line and after drawing the defence passed to Bower in the Blacks' half.
It only just shaded Bower's second try when he chipped the ball over the Uni defence from about 25 metres out and ran through to score.
"It was a good day, you don't have many like that," Bower said.
"It was great to cross for four, but it isn't possible without the hard work of the other guys."
Bower's day reflected the Blacks overall performance to an extent.
With three tries already in the bag and a couple of try-saving tackles, Bower was sin-binned with 20 minutes to go. Within a minute of returning to the field he scored his fourth try.
The Blacks play was at times exhilarating, but unfortunately equally frustrating at others as they dropped the intensity and allowed University back into the game with errors and penalties.
"It was a very good performance in parts, but we need to be more consistent across the entire game in our performance," Blacks coach Matt Thomas said.
"The boys need to celebrate a good win, but they also need to be fully aware that they need to lift upon that if we are going to beat any of the other top five teams."
The bonus-point win keeps the Blacks in third place with fellow top-four teams Hamilton (1st), Merewether Carlton (2nd) and Wanderers (4th) also collecting bonus with big wins.
The Blacks ran in eight tries with Bower contributing half and singles to James Johnston, Lachlan Bradford, Phil Bradford and Chris Logan. Pat Batey and Josh McCormack kicked two conversions each.
Lachlan Bradford is the only injury concern with a leg injury. Among those coming back from injury and time on the sidelines, Chris Logan, Michael Howell, Max Stafford and Josh McCormack all came through the game strongly.
Travis Brooke was rested with the flu.
The Blacks had wins in all grades and retain the Hawthorne Cup for another week.
Second grade won 31-13, third grade got up 24-10 and the women's team won 22-5.
The Blacks also won the inaugural Josie Dun Cup which was established to help raise awareness for RUN DIPG, a charity launched to help medical researcher Matt Dunn in his quest to find a cure for his daughter Josie's cancer.
