An undermanned Maitland Blacks had to show real defensive grit to see off a game University at Marcellin Park on Saturday.
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Missing five regular first graders, the Blacks had to defend their own line for much of the second-half before a penalty turned momentum and they ran home a couple of late tries for a 43-28 win.
Pat Batey scored a double and there were four other individual try scorers as well as five conversions and a penalty goal.
Blacks coach Luke Cunningham was happy with the test of his team's resolve and the way they responded.
"We will get far more out of the context of yesterday's game than what we would if we had done it comfortably," Cunninghame
"We defended really well and considering we had five guys out it was a really good test of our resolve. They showed their character.
"The boys dug deep and got the result in the last 10 or so minutes when we kicked a penalty and scored a couple of tries after we defended our own line for the best part of 25 minutes in the second half.
"Uni have been playing better than there position on the ladder and record. Although they haven't won a game they have certainly pushed all the teams above them.
"We started the game really well and scored a couple of tries and then Uni fought back into it and turned it into a wrestle."
The Blacks were missing halves partners Cobi Wetini and Hare Meihana, who starred in last week's win against Hamilton, James Johnson (injured), Caileb Gerrard and Tom Lovegrove (suspended) through a combination of work commitments, injury and prior engagements.
The Blacks extended their lead to 14 points at the top of the table from Merewether-Carlton who had a 33-33 draw with Hamilton after the Hawks played the final 30 minutes with 13 men at Passmore Oval on Saturday.
Wanderers had a 62-26 win against Southern Beaches.
Ladder: 1. Maitland (11 games) 49; 2. Merewether (10) 35; 3. Wanderers (9) 32; 4. Hamilton (10) 28; 5. University (9) 4; 6. Southern Beaches (9) 6.
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
