The struggling Blues displayed real grit to record their third win of the Super Rugby season with a 23-18 victory over the Bulls at Eden Park on Friday.
The home team scored a try in each half, matched by a brace to Bulls inside centre Jan Serfontein as the South Africans stole a bonus point to edge fractionally ahead of the table-topping Stormers.
The Bulls dominated territory in the first half, but the Blues made the most of their chances whenever they managed to gain good field position.
In contrast, while the Bulls carved off huge chunks of ground and launched a series of early attacks on the Blues line, they couldn't convert territory into points.
They led 6-3 after 20 minutes before Blues fullback Lolagi Visinia sparked the game into life with a searing 40m run, latching onto an aimless clearance and wrong-footing Francois Hougaard as he shimmied and swerved his way to the line.
The Bulls hit back as the half-hour mark ticked over.
After solid work at the set piece laid the base, No.10 Handre Pollard spotted a gap and sliced through the Blues defence, offloading for Serfontein to finish in style.
They looked set to take a narrow lead into halftime, but a lack of discipline allowed Ihaia West a couple of penalties and the five-eighth's steady boot gave the Blues a 16-13 lead at the break.
The Blues suffered a double blow 10 minutes after the restart, the Bulls launching a long-range attack from a solid scrum at the halfway line, a quick recycle from five metres out giving Serfontein the momentum to cross for his second.
In the same move, the home team lost stand-in skipper Steven Luatua with what looked like a serious arm injury - a huge blow after already losing regular captain Jerome Kaino for the rest of the season with a finger injury.
But the Blues continued to pressure the Bulls line, and were rewarded in the 67th minute after a half-break from centre Francis Saili left the Bulls cover defence scrambling and
inside centre George Moala crossed for the match-winning try.
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