More agony for the Blues at the hands of the Chiefs – their extraordinary winless drought against their closest rivals spanning seven years continues – but the visitors surely deserve the plaudits after this often brutal match at Eden Park.

Tana Umaga will again rue his side's inaccuracy, and a period after halftime in which the Chiefs scored two converted tries and took the game away from them, but Colin Cooper's men surely had no right to win this given their injury problems during the week and on the day of the match.

Already near desperation levels in terms of personnel, lock Brodie Retallick was a late scratching after receiving a finger in an eye during training, and fullback Shaun Stevenson limped off during the warm-up due to a leg injury.

The latter injury required a quick backline reshuffle, with Damian McKenzie shifting from first-five to fullback, a disappointment for those who wanted to see him lead the attack, but he remained integral to his side's attack. Tiaan Falcon moved from the reserves bench to first-five.

The late disruption didn't appear to affect the Chiefs, who were down early to an Augustine Pulu try, but kept hanging in there as they generally do. The Dave Rennie era brought back the resolve to this franchise, and it hasn't gone anywhere despite his departure.

McKenzie, Sam Cane, Brad Weber and Sean Wainui were standouts for the Chiefs, who celebrated their first win of the season. For the Blues, the search for a first win continues.

The frustrating thing again for them is they had the opportunities to do far better but even the energy levels appeared lower than last weekend in Dunedin. They really are an enigma of a team, and their mistake in the final seconds, despite winning a penalty and threatening a late and improbable victory, was an appropriate way for them to stumble to the finish.

As far as the brutality levels went, one of the more high-impact of the match came at the end of the first half when McKenzie, leading a breakout on the halfway line, ran into the right shoulder of Matt Duffie.

The Blues right wing had earlier been involved in a scuffle when trying to smash through a ruck, and clearly with a taste of the rough stuff, delivered a perfectly legal but debilitating shot to McKenzie's midriff; the little Chiefs playmaker going down and staying there.

He popped up eventually, apparently none too worse for wear – at testament to his toughness and resolve - but got a similar reception from Rieko Ioane in the second half.

It was even at two tries each at that point but the Blues should have been further ahead. They had struck first through Pulu, who backed up James Parsons' run close to the line, and No8 Akira Ioane scored a beauty from 20m out when he ran around three would-be defenders, including McKenzie.

But before and after Ioane's try came touchdowns for the visitors through Taleni Seu, who went through an attacking ruck far too easily, and Wainui, who showed great strength to get around Duffie in the left corner.

A combination of their own mistakes and referee Ben O'Keeffe's whistle kept the brakes on the Blues' attack, but Chiefs flanker Cane needs some credit here too. After leading from the front against the Crusaders last weekend, he had another stand-out game here.
Melani Nanai's brain explosion, when he made a break and passed to no one, only to see Weber race away, allowed the Chiefs to go further ahead following Mitchell Brown's converted try for the Chiefs.

Adding to the Blues' worries ahead of a tough trip to South Africa, skipper Pulu limped off in the second half, with Chiefs prop Nepo Laulala walking off with what looked like a shoulder injury.