Vern Cotter admits Saturday's win over the Brumbies was among the most well-rounded performances he's overseen from the Blues in his young tenure as head coach.
What was widely expected to be another typically hard-fought encounter between the two trans-Tasman heavyweights - placed second and third respectively in the competition standings - fizzled into a one-sided hammering by the Blues, who shut the gate early on a woeful Brumbies outfit in a 46-7 decimation at a soggy Eden Park.
The victory is the largest the Blues have ever recorded over the No.1 Australian side and affords them a five-point buffer in second place.
"They were up for it tonight," said Cotter after the match. "And when you're up and get together, you generally get a good result.
"The boys dug in and managed to keep them out until later in the game.
"The boys and their preparation they went through during the week, I thought they put on a solid week."
The Blues ran rampant to the tune of seven tries to one, adapting to the conditions perfectly by leaning on their heavy hitters upfront.
Led by another eye-catching performance from No. 8 Hoskins Sotutu, who bagged a brace of tries, the Blues pack dominated all evening, flipping the script on the Brumbies with some clinically executed setpiece scores.
Captain Patrick Tuipulotu said his group had been laser focussed all week in their preparation, with the threat of the highly vaunted Brumbies pack raising the levels.
"I think it's part of the game plan and I think that made us nervous," Tuipulotu confessed.
"I definitely felt nervous throughout the week and throughout our training prep... there was the feeling of that within our forwards group.
"To get to get it rolling tonight for us and get over the line especially, it's props to the work that we've done, run right through the season. Because we've gone so close so many times against a good Brumbies side, who pride themselves in setpiece defence and they're usually the ones who were doing the running mauls on other teams.
"Overall, very, very happy that we were able to dominate a good Brumbies team."
The Blues now travel to Australia for a two-game stint starting against the Reds, before returning to New Zealand for what shapes as a mouthwatering clash with the currently undefeated Hurricanes.
"We can use these two games to try and get better, and see if we can get to their level," said Cotter. "[The Hurricanes] are obviously out in front and setting the level you need to get to, and we'll just work quietly to see if we can get there.
"We get a bit of a test in three week's time."
