The Blues' semi-final aspirations are still alive after a tense 19-17 victory over the Hurricanes at Eden Park on Friday night.
The victory was played out in a stupendous atmosphere in front of a bumper crowd of 37,352 - easily the biggest crowd at a Rebel Sport Super 14 match in New Zealand this year.
The win means the Blues are on 40 points - and will need two of the three matches involving teams with a chance of making the play-offs to go their way over the rest of the round.
But the gutsy performance against a fired up Hurricanes outfit, who had won the last three encounters between the sides, was testimony to the mental strength and physical courage displayed by coach David Nucifora's men.
The much needed bonus point for scoring four tries did not eventuate, but it was not for want of trying. After trailing 16-17 at halftime, with just one try to Anthony Boric against a brace from Hosea Gear, the Blues laid seige to the Hurricanes' line early in the second spell.
In the space of five minutes the Blues had more than reasonable appeals for tries to David Smith and Jerome Kaino ruled out by the TMO Glenn Newman, and another effort ruled held up in goal.
But three missed dropped goals by Hurricanes' rookie first five-eighths Willie Ripia in the final 10 minutes balanced the bad luck meter - and in the end the Blues were pretty content with four points for the win.
Nucifora and captain Troy Flavell presented a positive front at the post-match media conference and were justifiably proud of the win.
"That was a great game of football and obviously everyone who packed into the ground would be pretty happy with their value for money. I thought our guys were outstanding. To be able to come back from 14-3 down, and win that game in the manner which we did, is something I'm pretty proud of," Nucifora says.
"This team couldn't have done that a few years ago. To have the composure and the courage to hold them out there in that second half was fantastic. Now we wait and see what unravells over the weekend.
"But the first thing you have to do is celebrate the winning of the game and we played extremely well I thought. We are still alive, we are still breathing, and we will see what happens."
Flavell was similarly impressed with the Blues' performance and he had one of his better performances up against the tough Hurricanes' backrow of Rodney So'oialo, Jerry Collins and Chris Masoe.
"We showed a lot of strength, unity and self belief out there, which is something we could have tapered off on mid-season. We have fought our way back into this competition and managed to keep in there. The next 48 hours will determine our fate," Flavell says.
"As a captain I am glad to lead these guys out week to week, and tonight's performance sort of tops that off."
Nucifora added that if the Blues do miss the semi-finals then the team has not failed.
"When you look at this side, we are far from failures. We have played some great football. People forget that at the start of the season we had lost 11 players from our semi-final team of last year. Not too many teams in this competition could lose 11 players and then turn around be contesting for a semi-final spot the next year.
"We knew we had a lot of work to do to make up for the big changes in our squad. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved this year under those circumstances, and hopefully we will be remembered for the type of performance we put in tonight, rather than anything else."