The Blues march relentlessly on to a home Super Rugby Pacific semifinal – their defensive and counter-attacking ability too much for a Highlanders side badly wounded in the first half by hooker Andrew Makalio’s red card.
Their 35-6 victory at Eden Park in front of a good-sized crowd of 23,500 was comfortable and they will play the Brumbies next after the Canberra side beat the Hurricanes 35-25 in their quarter-final later on Saturday night.
In the minutes before kick-off the big screen showed glorious images of days past – men such as Carlos Spencer, Jonah Lomu and Zinzan Brooke scoring and celebrating on their way to various championships, and this current lot are well on track to emulate them.
They played with patience, heart and accuracy – as they have all season – and didn’t appear affected by captain Dalton Papalii’s unavailability due to appendix surgery which was only confirmed by the Blues just over an hour before kick-off.
The Highlanders, determined to play their part, did so with some determination in the first half, but while they had a pack who asked a few questions of their vaunted opposition, they didn’t have the firepower in the backline to capitalise.
And of course, in a season marred by ill discipline and moments of madness (and a couple of weeks after Sam Gilbert's dismissal against the Waratahs), Makalio provided another after 23 minutes when his shoulder connected with the head of Tom Robinson as the Blues loose forward charged towards the line.
It made an already difficult task for the eighth seeds, who qualified for the finals despite winning only four of 14 matches and were without their little talisman Aaron Smith due to injury, even tougher.
They tried of course, with halfback Folau Fakatava and loose forward Marino Mikaele-Tu’u their best attacking weapons, but assistant coach Joe Schmidt’s defensive fingerprints were all over this five tries to nil victory.
The home side, often second best at scrum time as Ethan de Groot muscled up against Ofa Tuungafasi, went long periods without the ball in the first quarter but the Highlanders resembled a maroon wave crashing up against a blue wall.
There was no way through or around and that, and Banks’ early unsuccessful attempt at a dropped goal as he ran out of ideas, set the tone for the match. The Highlanders didn’t have the manpower or tactics to break the Blues and both teams appeared to know it.
The Blues, on the other hand, with Beauden Barrett, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Rieko Ioane, Mark Telea and Stephen Perofeta poised, threatened virtually every time they got the ball.
They attacked from deep and with purpose. Barrett and Perofeta in particular were spritely, with Ioane’s pace forever threatening despite his recent rehabilitation from a hamstring strain and Tuivasa-Sheck regularly bamboozled with his quick feet.
The Highlanders stretched like an elastic band and eventually broke when Ioane put big brother Akira through a huge hole, the loose forward taking great delight in crossing the line after being unlucky not to be awarded a try earlier, the match officials not convinced when it appeared fairly straightforward.
And Barrett’s, when he scampered in typical style to put the Blues 14-6 up, was fair reward for his side’s patience and accuracy – at least on defence. They coughed up the ball a little too often for Leon MacDonald’s liking but that defensive wall was enough to win it back for them.
Barrett’s second, eight minutes after halftime and assisted brilliantly by Tuivasa-Sheck and Rieko Ioane, shut the door in the faces of the Highlanders, who began the half brightly, with Fakatava’s attacking ability evident.
AJ Lam’s try in the left corner as the match entered the fourth quarter, and Tuivasa-Sheck's first in Super Rugby, were further illustrations of the Blues’ utter superiority.
The other semifinal was confirmed as the Crusaders hosting the Chiefs once the men from Waikato dispatched the Waratahs 39-15 in their earlier quarter-final on Saturday.
Blues 35 (Beauden Barrett 2, Akira Ioane, AJ Lam, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck tries; Stephen Perofeta 5 cons)
Highlanders 6 (Marty Banks 2 pens)
Halftime: 14-6
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