The Blacks propelled themselves to the top of the Hunter Rugby Union table with a 62-5 romp over old rivals Singleton on Back to Blacks day at Marcellin Park last Saturday.

The Blacks are equal on 20 points with Hamilton and are just one point ahead of the Gropers after backing up from their 27-22 win against Hamilton two weeks ago.

"The Bay are always very tough at home regardless of where they are on the ladder," Blacks coach Luke Cunningham said.

"Looking at some of their footage from recent games they've got a couple of bigger forwards this year who look like they are doing some really strong carries and they've got a pretty slick backline.

"Their backline really like to throw the ball around and play with little structure which can be quite hard to defend

"Our guys are going to have to be really on song in defence and try and take some of the space and shut down that attack they have out wide."

Cunningham said his young side were looking forward to the challenge on Saturday and he was confident their game would stand up to a big test.

"We've got some really strong ball carriers in our forward pack and probably more importantly some workers in the forward pack who lay that platform and get us on the front foot and get behind the defensive line of our opposition," he said.

"The backs are really starting to play some good footy in the past few weeks.

"We had some new guys with Hare (Meihana) and Coby (Wetini) in the halves and then Aiden Procopis on the wing and Pat Batey in the unfamiliar role of fullback and it takes a couple of weeks for them to get comfortable in those positions.

"I've felt in the last couple of weeks the ball movement and the way we have started to link up in the backs is progressing well."

Maitland were electrifying against the Bulls with Batey and Procopis both scoring hat-tricks and Riley Woods collecting a double in the 10 try to one romp.

"It was nice to put on a good performance on Old Boys Day," Cunningham said. "A good team regardless of who they play will have that killer instinct and approach the game with the same attitude regardless of where their opposition is on the table.

"It was important that we continued the momentum that we picked up from beating Hamilton."

In a sign of their depth the Blacks also sit on top of the second and third grade ladders.

Batey, who added six conversions to his three tries, was man of the match in an full-team effort to back up the week before's important 27-22 drought-breaking win against Hamilton.

Riley Leadley scored in the 67^th minute and prop Tom Vincent completed an 80-minute performance when he barged over the line in the 78^th minute.

Leadley received the two points from the coaches and Procopis and five-eighth Hare Meihana received one point each.