IF the frontrunners in Hunter Rugby were not looking over their shoulders at Wanderers; they are now.
The Two Blues produced their best performance of the season to stun leaders Merewether 24-15 at Townson Oval on Saturday.
The hard-fought win sealed a finals place for Wanderers, with a game against Hamilton at home remaining.
The top four is locked in; it is just the order that has to be determined.
Merewether (59 points) can wrap up the minor premiership with a win over last-placed Southern Beaches (four points) at home.
Maitland remain in second spot on 57 points after withstanding a late come back from Hamilton to win 43-35 at Marcellin Park on Saturday.
University are hot on their heels on 56 points. They powered past Southern Beaches 55-29 at Bernie Curran Oval on Saturday.
The Blacks host the Students in a likely showdown for second place.
Wanderers have competed hard against the top three all season.
They led Maitland only to give a late penalty for a 33-31 defeat three weeks ago. Last round they had a 26-19 advantage at half-time before going down 38-26.
It was shaping as a similar script against the Greens.
The visitors led 14-0 and 14-12 at half-time.
But this time they did not wilt.
"We have been in a number of tight games and haven't been able to finish it off," Wanderers coach Luke Sherwood said. "Hopefully today gives us that bit of belief that we can go 80 minutes.
"I think teams have always been looking over their shoulders at us. Now, I'm sure they are. We are in the four. We just have to keep building for the finals."
Blockbusting No.8 Ben Peper and former Hunter Wildfires lock Ngaruhe Jones were strong for Wanderers.
Equally impressive were halfback Pat Sarungallo and fly-half Johnty Pettet.
Sarungallo has played the majority of the season in third grade but has stepped up after injuries to Charlie Fielder (leg) and Jack Holt (biceps).
"Pat is a tough little player and has been great for the last three weeks," Sherwood said. "He is dangerous around the ruck, is a good defender and gets over the ball and pilfers.
"Johnty also. He aimed up when we needed him to. He directed us around the park and put the outside backs into space.
"We had three changes in the backline from last week. All the boys who came in were immense."
Sherwood expects for Samoan and NSW Waratahs prop Andrew Tuala to return from foot injury next week.
The Wanderers scrum was under pressure midway through the first half but fought back.
"We changed the loose head and tight head around. They just knew that they needed to lock down and hold it," Sherwood said.
Merewether troubled Wanderers on the edges but were unable to capitalise.
"Our defence, particularly on our own line, was huge," Sherwood said.
At Passmore Oval, Hamilton scored first through lock Lawson Moffitt, but it was one-way traffic for the next 30-off minutes with Tom Lovegrove (9th minute), Pat Batey (16th), Liam Dalibozek (23rd) Ryan Ledley (29th) and Beau Gerrard (33rd) crossing to open a 35-7 lead for Maitland.
Halfback Jack Young darted over after a quick tap to cut the gap to 35-14 at the break
The Hawks continued the revival in the second half with Max Marshall, Daniel Roderick and Kalani Grant touching down to level at 35-all.
The Maitland scrum aimed up late and Sam Callow, returning from knee surgery off the bench, burrowed over before Hare Meihana landed a late penalty to ice the win.
At Bernie Curran Oval, Kiwi winger Tiaan Brownless scored a hat-trick at University ran in nine tries on the way to a 55-29 triumph.
Meanwhile, it was a tough day for the Hunter Wildfires.
The Wildfires suffered a sixth straight defeat going down 44-12 to Norths at No.2 Sportsground.
The Wildfires' division one women won a thriller against Western Sydney 28-24 to seal fourth spot and a place in the minor semi-final. .
