Athens ran in ten tries against Spartans in another convincing display that keeps them clear at the top of the championship after five rounds.

The champions posted a 65-3 win with wings Georgos Kaloxilos and Costas Makrikostas both touching down twice. Goalkicker Michael Loizou claimed a personal tally of 15 points with six conversions and a penalty.

In the other games there was a convincing win for Iraklis over Trikala while Spartakos and Rhodes beat Mecedones Evosmos and Attica Springboks respectively.

Athens were given the perfect start by Makrikostas, playing his first game since damaging cruciate knee ligaments in the 2007 final against Rhodes, who went over in the right hand corner almost straight from the kick-off.

Athens did not take their foot of the pedal, however, and recorded another try in the opposite corner shortly after through Savvas Mavrikidis who was making his debut at outside centre.

The ball was whipped off the top of the line out on the right hand side of the pitch and swept through every pair of hands in the backline where it arrived in the hands of Mavrikidis who pinned his ears back and headed for the corner, taking the despairing cover tackler over the line with him.

Athens number eight Philippos Sotiriadis then picked up off the back of a ruck inside the Spartans 22 for try number three while veteran wing Kaloxilos showed he still has plenty in the tank with two tries before the break.

Leading 34-0 at half-time, Athens continued to apply the pressure in the second half although Spartans came close to scoring a try when Michalis Nikas charged down a clearance from Loizou only to be bundled into touch before he could cross the line in the corner.

Athens hit back through individual tries from flanker Vangelis Nastas and fly-half Grigol Mshvildadze who both picked their way through broken field to touchdown under the posts.

A rare moment of second half continuity saw Athens move through five phases before some deft handling by lock Kostas Karandreas saw him put the Athens backs in space allowing Makrikostas to seal a successful comeback with his second try of the day.

Inside centre George Tsatsaronis and Vassilis Katsakos also went over while Spartans had a small form of consolation when Xenophon Latsoudis converted a penalty which at least put some points on the board.

Meanwhile, Iraklis posted their third win as they hammered Trikala 117-17. Trikala will doubtless be disappointed to be on the end of a century but at least they had the satisfaction of scoring their first points of the season.

In Rhodes, the islanders ground out a hard-fought 16-0 win over Attica Springboks which now puts them level in second place with Spartakos on 12 points, three behind Athens.