The Blues beat the Rebels 71-28 at Eden Park.
Video / Sky Sport
Spurred by one of their best attacking performances in history, the Blues are well on their way to securing home comforts for the Super Rugby Pacific playoffs.
Significant challenges remain in the form of the Reds at home, and more so the Brumbies in Canberra, before finishing the regular seasonwith the Waratahs in Sydney, but after rediscovering their groove with an 11-try rout of the Melbourne Rebels on Friday night, the Blues are well placed to lock in Eden Park as a daunting playoff venue.
After an underwhelming two-week tour of Australia, where they held off the Fijian Drua and scraped past the Force in Perth, the Blues celebrated returning home by comprehensively dismantling the Rebels.
The 71-28 domination projected the Blues to the second-highest halftime score (47 points) in Super Rugby history, behind Crusaders' 63 against the Waratahs in 2002, while finishing three points shy of their highest total (77) set against the Stormers in 1998.
After conceding two early tries the Blues immediately regrouped to amass 66 unanswered points and hold the Rebels scoreless for 70 minutes.
Blues coach Leon MacDonald could have singled out any number of players but he instead praised his team's improved discipline, defence and selfless attacking attitude.
"We knew we had it in us," MacDonald said. "We were frustrated we had let ourselves down in those areas. We needed to refocus. The timing of the pass, the support lines and the way we moved around the park was a big step up from where we have been the last couple of weeks."
MacDonald played for the Crusaders in their record 96-19 humiliation of the Waratahs in 2002. There were shades of that match in the first half where the Blues forwards offloaded at will to allow their lethal backline to run amok for seven tries.
"I keep reminding [Blues assistant coach and former Waratahs playmaker] Dan Halangahu about that game actually," MacDonald chuckled. "That was a long time ago now. Some of the tries were fantastic, selfless. Sometimes it's more about the lead up play than the guy who finishes. That's what we were committed to this week. That flair we've naturally got only ever comes when we're all working hard for each other."
Caleb Clarke and Soane Vikena were all smiles after their side's victory over the Rebels. Photo / Photosport
Having laid down a marker, MacDonald underlined the mental advantage Eden Park would give his men.
"The next little while is going to dictate where we're going to finish on the table. We love playing at Eden Park. We've played well here over the last few years and been hard to beat here – only the Crusaders have beaten us here for a little while so to give us every opportunity of being here over the run home makes a big difference. There's also a bit of pride in defending our record here, that's really important."
Blues captain Dalton Papalii, somewhat overshadowed by standout performances from Akira Ioane, Hoskins Sotutu, Ofa Tuungafasi, Kurt Eklund and James Tucker in the pack, implored the Blues to extend their 10-match unbeaten run.
"When the flair is going and we're dominating it's because we're doing the basics well. At the start we didn't execute but it goes to show we can be one of the best teams, if not the best, in the country, in the world or this competition so we've got to keep harping on about that," Papalii said.
"We don't need to change anything. Talking to Luke Romano with all his experience, he said these are the times you don't back off, you keep ramping up, so the boys will keep doing that because we got a taste of how good we can be."
With Beauden Barrett satisfying his second All Blacks rest requirement MacDonald now has the luxury of selecting from his full squad. When Barrett returns, the classy Stephen Perofeta will be expected to slot in at fullback.
"It's nice to have the ability to pick everybody," MacDonald said. "We've managed to get through those breaks. Last week we were frustrated with some of the impact off the bench but they managed to bring real impact and we didn't drop away which is going to be really important."
