The Chiefs have fended off a comeback bid from the underpowered Hurricanes to grind out a 23-12 win in wet, challenging conditions in Hamilton.
The bad weather currently hitting many parts of the country was no stranger to Waikato Stadium and it showed with both sides struggling to control the ball.
In such demanding circumstances, leadership often shines and while the Hurricanes had some of their senior players out there, the much-debated absence of All Blacks Tyrel Lomax, Ardie Savea and Jordie Barrett certainly showed.
At set piece the Chiefs were simply dominant with Brodie Retallick doing particularly well to control the lineouts and their kicking game, led by Damian McKenzie and Shaun Stevenson, had the visitors back-tracking and getting into trouble all evening.
Those troubles started early with the Chiefs making the most of a handling error to eventually put Samisoni Taukei'aho over the line off a lineout maul.
The match then got down to the gritty business with the Hurricanes wrestling to find a reply but the Chiefs defence wouldn't budge and in the wet it was only a matter of time before those attacks faded with a turnover one way or another.
Another costly error, this time at a lineout, then saw Tupou Vaa'i cross over to score for the Chiefs and double their lead - a 10-0 scoreline that would stand until halftime with the Hurricanes made to play from inside their half for much of the opening 40 minutes.
Those patterns continued into the second half with Vaa'i claiming a second shortly after the restart and it was starting to look as though a 17-0 scoreline would be how the crucial clash would finish.
Then the Hurricanes sparked their comeback attempt from nothing.
It started off a superb run from Josh Moorby who managed to shake off [or maybe just slip through] his defender and kick ahead, chasing it down to score in the right corner - a try that had no right being scored in such atrocious conditions but the massive slide at the end in the wet adding to it's class.
While it didn't seem to rattle the Chiefs - who held a 17-5 lead with 20 minutes to go - they certainly battened down the hatches and began to play the territory game to ensure such an outlier moment wouldn't happen again.
In fact, despite having the option to kick for a 5m lineout off a penalty shortly after Moorby's try, captain Sam Cane handed McKenzie the tee and took the three points on offer much like he would if he were leading the All Blacks in a tight Test.
But the Hurricanes weren't letting that agenda take hold and Brayden Iose pounced on a rare McKenzie error to sprint away to score a second Hurricanes try in the space of 10 minutes and cutting the deficit to eight points.
Still, the Chiefs stuck to their ways and added another three from McKenzie's boot before they returned to their territory game and thwarted any chances of a late comeback.
The win sees the Chiefs head to Canberra next week to take on the Brumbies eight points clear of the second-placed Crusaders while the Hurricanes cross the Bombay Hills to play the Blues.
The clash at Eden Park will be one of the most impactful of the season with the two sides split by just one point at fourth and fifth and fighting for a home quarterfinal.
Chiefs 23 (Tupou Vaa’i 2, Samisoni Taukei’aho tries; Damian McKenzie con, 2 pens)
Hurricanes 12 (Josh Moorby, Brayden Iose tries; Aidan Morgan con)
HT: 10-0
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