In a game that the Superoos could easily have won by more, the Blacks were hamstrung by the sending-off of centre Scott Crowther in the 18th minute, while they were forced to play with 11 men for a total of 20 minutes in the second half after Kane Edwards and coach Mark Simon both spent time in the sin-bin.

In fact it was the Blacks who got away best and Edwards showed great footwork to score under the posts in just the seventh minute, with Josh Windisch’s conversion giving them a 6-nil lead.

That lead was short-lived when they dropped the ball from the kick-off and Superoo half Jono Dallas strolled over under the posts from the resultant scrum.

This was quickly followed by tries to second-rower Simon Maslanka and centre Josh Champion as the home side looked like running away with the game.

This situation was made even worse for the Blacks when Crowther was dismissed on a touch judge report for an allegedly using a knee in a tackle.

But the Port side seemed unfased and replacement winger Robbie Moylan scored after two clever kicks by Mark Simon, before the Superoos had the final say with winger Michal Maslanka racing 60 metres to score in the corner and give his side a 20-10 lead at half-time.

The second half looked like one-way traffic when five-eighth Mark Asquith added two more tries, both converted by Matt Coelho, before the coach added another try and at 38-10 a whitewash looked on the cards.

But to Port’s credit they never gave up and big Jack Garrett crashed over under the posts and shortly afterwards Moylan scored his second as the Blacks surged.

But in the end it was the class of the Superoos left-side attack that had the final say, with Robbie Noble and Josh Champion both adding late tries to round out the scoring.

In a solid team performance Simon Maslanka, Robbie Noble, Jono Dallas, Mark Asquith and James Gilmore shone for the home side, while Garrett, Tane Sturmey, Simon and Christian Kupenga were best for the Blacks.