Hamilton came from 17-12 down early in the second half to beat Wanderers 27-24 at a boggy Passmore Oval on Saturday.

The Hawks don't play a traditional backs and forwards game. Players are split across the field.

Prop Chris Hemi and lock Taufa Kinikini were the spark plugs for the win.

Hemi burrowed over to level the scores. Paul Dan added a penalty and then Hemi burst down the right edge and found halfback Nick Watson on the inside to open up 27-17 advantage. Kinikini had earlier set up a try for Hemi.

Wanderers fought hard and set up an exciting final three minutes when lock Ignacio Battilana crashed over.

"We played some good footy, but just had some moments which went against us," Wanderers coach Dan Beckett said. "It has been that sort of year."

The visitors finished strongly but couldn't find a match-winner.

The Hawks' win was a major turnaround from the 41-15 defeat to Maitland the previous round.

"When we got our game plan going, we looked really good," Berry said. "We have forwards who can play like backs and backs like forwards. We like to intermingle our rugby. I think it worked quite well when we got it going."

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Wanderers, who lost fly-half George Ashworth to a shoulder injury early in the second half, earned two bonus points and have moved above Nelson Bay into fourth, ahead of a catch-up game against University at No.2 Sportsground on Wednesday night.

"The game is gone and you have had your heart broken: you can down tools but they fought hard and got two bonus points," Beckett said. "That could be our whole year. I have been around football teams that would have quit then.

"At the moment we are all heart. What we need is a break to go our way. When we get a break we are going to light it up. We have to push through and play hard."

The win moved the Hawks to 47 points and secured a top-finish with two rounds remaining.

"We want to get some rhythm so that when we get to the finals, we are playing the rugby we want to play," Berry said. "I was pretty happy with some of our play. It wasn't all brilliant but it was better than it has been."

Elsewhere, Caileb Gerrard was bestowed the captaincy at Maitland and responded with four tries in a 64-5 rout of Singleton at Rugby Park.

University made it three straight wins - a rarity in recent seasons - with a 57-31 rout of Southern Beaches at Ernie Calland field.

The students scored six tries in the first half to set up the win.

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