The Maitland Blacks produced their best half of football all year to beat Nelson Bay 22-15 on one of the hardest road trips in Hunter Rugby on Saturday.
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Blacks coach Luke Cunningham said his side was clinical in the first half dominating in their set pieces and in particular the scrum.
"Our scrums we absolutely dominated the Nelson Bay pack, out lineout was very clinical as well, the boys in defence were making their tackles," Cunningham said.
"We really cut down a lot of their attacking options and they've got a really dangerous backline. I was really happy with our first half.
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"The way we played was even better than our game against Hamilton.
"The attitude, the enthusiasm and we were working to get ourselves into try scoring positions. We built pressure which resulted in points.
"The boys were playing with a lot of confidence, which was something we have discussed over the past fortnight that we are sitting on top of the ladder, we're stringing wins together and that momentum is hard to stop.
The Blacks went into the break leading 10-3 at half-time through a converted try to Riley Woods and a penalty goal to Pat Batey.
Nelson Bay scored first after the break with an unconverted try, but Caileb Gerrard got the first try of his double soon after for a 15-8 game.
Gerrard crossed for his second in the 71st minute and Batey's conversion gave Maitland a 22-8 lead.
Cunningham said a late Nelson Bay converted try virtually on the bell flatter their scoreline.
"We dropped a bit of ball in the second half, which didn't help, but in saying that we were trying things so I certainly not disappointed that the boys played with the positivity that they did," he said.
"They played quite expansive and threw the ball around a bit, so I'm not disappointed with the dropped ball, but it did slow our momentum a little bit."
Cunningham queried a number of penalties which went against them in the second half and he said he will need to review the video to see if he was being a little one-eyed or what he felt was warranted.
He said Caileb Gerrard had one of his better games for the club to be pick on the day.
"He scored two tries, but more his defence with his one-on-one tackles and then he did a lot of cleaning up in defence as well," he said.
"All of the forwards played really well. Our front row was excellent, they absolutely dominated at set piece and then it was a typical Sam Callow performance. He got through a mountain of work as well.
"It was a really great team effort."
The Blacks lead the competition on 24 points from Hamilton and Nelson Bay on 20, Merewether 19 and Wanderers 16. The Blacks and Nelson Bay have played one more game than the other top five teams
The competition takes a break for the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
"We'll train Tuesday and I'll give them Thursday off, then we'll come back on Tuesday and prepare for Southern Beaches at home and build towards that last game of the round which is against Merewether, down at Merewether," Cunningham said.
"That will be a great test and the boys are already talking about it and looking forward to it. I'm sure if we played like we did in that first half we'll get the rewards that they deserve."
The Blacks are still on top of the table despite dropping their first game in Premier 2 losing 41-24 to Nelson Bay. In Premier 3 the Blacks lost 47-0 but are still second on the table, one point behind Nelson Bay.
Maitland had the bye in the women's competition. They are second behind Wanderers.