The Blues have stormed into Super Rugby finals calculations, putting four tries on the Western Force in the first 20 minutes to set up a 40-14 victory at Perth's nib Stadium.
The Blues were clearly ready following the international break with Ihaia West, Charlie Faumuina, Lolagi Visinia and Ma'a Nonu scoring tries before the Force knew what hit them on Saturday night.
The Aucklanders led 26-0 after 20 minutes, and after a determined 10 minutes of defending they carried the same scoreline into the break with the game all but over.
Both teams then scored two tries apiece in the second half.
The result takes the Blues to 36 points to move ahead of the Chiefs in the New Zealand conference, and into eighth place behind the Force.
The Blues' finals hopes will be decided in their two remaining derbies against the Crusaders and Chiefs while the Force must beat the Reds and Brumbies to remain any chance.
It took less than five minutes for the Blues to score the first try and it was on the back of a superb chip kick from George Moala that West ran on to and scored from.
The Blues added another quickly when prop Faumuina bulldozed his way through the Force defence to make the score 14-0 after West converted.
It was then 19-0 shortly after when fullback Visinia was simply too quick for the Force as he ran through the defence, straight by them and over the line.
Nonu then made the Force look second rate as he brushed aside tackles from Sias Ebersohn and Jayden Hayward to give the Blues a fourth try and the bonus point inside 20 minutes.
As impressive as the Blues' attack was in the opening stretch, their defence was equally brilliant to close out the first half and again to open the second.
Eventually the Blues' were penalised with Tom Donnelly sin-binned, but the Force couldn't capitalise and the visitors ran in their fifth try soon after, courtesy of captain Luke Braid.
When converted by West the Blues led 33-0 before the Force got two consolation tries through Nathan Charles and Brynard Stander in between the Blues' fifth five-pointer from outside centre Pita Ahki.
Force coach Michael Foley couldn't hide his disappointment in a lot of areas, with so much riding on the result.
"We talked about the opposition we were playing against and giving them soft opportunities with poor kicking was exactly what we didn't want to do," Foley said.
"You have to try and control the game by playing structured football, and we certainly didn't do that early. They got a lot of momentum out of that."
Blues coach Sir John Kirwan was delighted with how his team came flying out of the blocks following the international break.
"We had an interesting week with our guys coming back from winning the World 10s in Singapore and the All Blacks coming back along with some of our under-20 guys," Kirwan said.
"I thought the guys focused all week and we started well, and continued to play well for 80.
"It was an important evening for us and important to come away with points."
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