Western Suburbs on Saturday managed to record a narrow 16-15 home victory over defending champions Reho Falcon in Round 7 of the MTC Rugby Premier League.
Fullback Justin Nell gave the hosts an early lead by converting a penalty only four minutes into the match.
Falcons then took control of the game and struck back midway through the first half, when left wing Heini Bock opened his team`s account with a try.
Centre Darryl de la Harpe was the first player of Suburbs to cross the line, with Nel adding the conversion.
At the end of the first half eighthman Shaun van Rooi dotted down for Falcons and as fullback Howard Titus missed his second conversion of the day, the teams were level at 10-10 at the break.
With two more converted penalties in the second half Justin Nell turned out to be the match winner for Suburbs.
Falcons were pushing hard in the final stages and eventually got their second try of the day through Shaun van Rooi, but Howard Titus also failed with his third attempt to get points from a conversion.
The defending champions got a consolation point for losing with less than eight points difference, but on the log they dropped three positions down to fourth place.
Suburbs are now second behind the new log leader United, who convincingly beat Dolphins 48-13 on their home ground in Olympia.
Two weeks after their surprise win against Wanderers, the visitors from Swakopmund were outplayed comprehensively and remain bottom of the log.
The coastal team`s only try came in the second half through flanker Ngumee Nguaiko, converted by Rowan Besser, who had earlier scored two penalties.
After two tries by scrumhalf Herman Stroh, another by Luandro Noeth and one by Arthur Bouwer, with fullback Guillaume Nel adding two conversions, United was leading 24-6 at half time.
After the break eighthman Petrus Human, the lock pairing of Stefan Neustadt and Henning Joubert as well as fullback David Philander went over the line to secure their team the second bonus point for scoring more than six tries in the match.
While United seem to be cruising to a comfortable Top 4 finish, Wanderers seem to be out of contention for the play-off round after their 37-48 defeat against UNAM on Saturday.
It was China Blauuw who opened the scoring when he dotted down for Wanderers in the first minute, but converted tries by Bwalya Bwalya, Muniovita Kasiringua and Elmo van der Bijl as well as a penalty by Rodney Coetzee gave the university side a comfortable 24-10 lead at half time. Eugene Lofty-Eaton added a second Wanderers try just before halftime.
Early in the second half two quick tries by Wilbur Henckert, one of them converted by Rodney Coetzee, who later also scored a try, saw Wanderers trailing by a substantial margin.
The guests from Pionierspark, however, staged a great comeback. Heico Prinsloo, who also contributed two conversions and a penalty, Carter Visser, Wors Engelbrecht and Braam Vermeulen stormed over the line within a short period of time to reduce their team`s deficit to 37-41 with five minutes to go.
However, centre John Drotsky gave the Wanderers campaign a dreadful ending, when he dotted down for UNAM`s seventh try of the day. By collecting two bonus points the university club is now third in the log, three points ahead of Rehoboth that was out of action this past weekend.
UNAM will host United on 1 August. Three days later Mariental will be visiting Rehoboth, while Kudus and Reho Falcon will square off in Walvis Bay. In a second match at the coast, Dolphins will face Western Suburbs in Swakopmund.