The Blues overturned a five-point half-time deficit to claim a 24-10 win over the Sunwolves in Tokyo on Saturday.
Coming into this contest, both teams were rooted to the bottom of the overall standings, and it proved to be a largely low-quality affair.
There did appear to be a possible upset on the cards when the Sunwolves took a 10-5 lead into half-time, but the Blues displayed superior composure in the final stanza to claim just their second win of the season.
Proceedings had got off to the worst possible start for the Blues when Patrick Tuipulo was yellow-carded for a high tackle, and it was a sign of the struggles the Auckland-based side would endure in the first period.
Indeed, every time the Blues looked to launch a meaningful attack, they were met by the gutsy defence of a Sunwolves side that was clearly desperate to break their winless run in Super Rugby so far this season.
Quite deservedly, the hosts moved out to a 10-0 lead after a well-finished try to Timothy Lafaele and penalty to Yu Tamura, although the Blues hit back just before the break when Jordan Hyland scored a superb solo try.
However, the immense first-half effort of the Sunwolves appeared to catch up to them as they started to fall off tackles as the Blues began to up the intensity.
The result was a try to influential No 8 Akira Ioane – which enabled the Blues to hit the lead for the first time at the 50-minute mark – while Dalton Papali’I then ghosted past four would-be defenders to extend the visitors’ lead.
The Blues finally struck the killer blow when Hyland secured his brace late in the game to complete a dominant second-half performance from the Auckland-based side.
Sunwolves – Try: Timothy Lafaele. Conversion: Hayden Parker. Penalty: Yu Tamura.
Blues – Tries: Jordan Hyland (2), Akira Ioane, Dalton Papali’i. Conversions: Stephen Perofeta (2).
Sunwolves – 15 Kotaro Matsushima, 14 Semis Masirewa, 13 Timothy Lafaele, 12 Michael Little, 11 Lomano Lemeki, 10 Yu Tamura, 9 Yutaka Nager, 8 Kazuki Himeno, 7 Lappies Labuschagne, 6 Yoshitaka Takunaga, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 James Moore, 3 Jiwon Koo, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Craig Millar.
Subs: 16 Jaba Bregvadze, 17 Shintaro Ishihara, 18 Nikoloz Khatiashvili, 19 Wimpie van der Walt, 20 Willie Britz, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Hayden Parker, 23 William Tupou.
Blues – 15 Michael Collins, 14 Jordan Hyland, 13 Orbyn Leger, 12 Rieko Ioane, 11 Matt Duffie, 10 Stephen Perofeta, 9 Jonathan Ruru; 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Kara Pryor, 6 Jimmy Tupou, 5 Josh Goodhue, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 2 James Parsons (c), 1 Pauliasi Manu.
Subs: 16 Matt Moulds, 17 Ross Wright, 18 Mike Tamoaieta, 19 Ben Neenee, 20 Dalton Papali’i, 21 Sam Nock, 22 Bryn Gatland, 23 TJ Faiane.
Photo: Masahiro Ura/Getty Images
