The South Pacific Raiders continued their dominance when they clinically beat the Kia Toa Tigers 36-14 at the Kensington Oval on Saturday.
The Raiders showed why they are the favourites for the title with a dominant team performance in their seven-tries-to-three victory.
After the game, Raiders captain Manassah Kutia emphasised how proud he was of his team.
Kutia put the good performance down to all players standing up and doing their job. He said his team's desire to compete and good attitude were why they were playing so well.
Kutia also had an ominous warning for the other teams when he said the Raiders "haven't played the perfect game yet but that is coming".
The first half started with the Tigers jumping out to a 10-0 lead with tries from Lock Shane Unahi and winger Miller White.
The Raiders hit back with three tries in 20 minutes to centre Graeme Cashmore, hooker Simon Fuatavai and stand-off Tamati Davis.
Davis' try featured a nice show of the ball to his centres on the halfway mark. He then burst through the gap and showed good pace to score near the posts and put the Raiders in front 16-10 at halftime.
In the second half, the Tigers started to make too many mistakes and were punished when Cashmore swooped on a dropped ball on halfway and sprinted to the corner to increase the lead to 20-10.
Five minutes later Fuatavia scored his second try to increase the lead to 26-10.
The Tigers stayed in the game when they scored a brilliant try from just inside the Raiders' half.
Unahi broke the line and slipped a fine one handed pass to White who ran 30m and was dragged down 10m short of the try line, as he fell he slipped a pass to Centre Cody Raymond to score and give the Tigers some hope.
But the Raiders were simply too good and tries to Cashmore and halfback Kenneth Hemopo finished off an impressive performance.
The Tigers were good in patches and halfback Joel Tanora and standoff Ryan Tapsell tried hard but the Raiders defence shut them down well.
Tigers second row Pita Davis was the pick of the forwards. He made some nice breaks and good tackles.
The Raiders forwards were strong all game with prop Rocky Pohatu, Kutia and Fuatavai standing out in an impressive pack.
In the Raiders backs, Davis was outstanding all game and the centre pairing of Cashmore and Joe Kirkner were a thorn in the Tigers side all day.
The Harbour Seals had to default their game against University due to injuries and players having work commitments.
