Their 22-6 victory over Connacht allowed them to leapfrog unbeaten Munster, who play on Saturday night, and give themselves the perfect boost before heading into the Heineken Cup next week.
The game only had one try, but what a try it was. Back to full fitness, former All Blacks centre Casey Laulala dummied his way through the first line of defence before sidestepping the final defender before racing to the posts.
“It wasn’t a great performance, and we aren’t playing that well, but we came out of it with a win. That’s the most important thing,” said Laulala after the game.
Dan Parks chipped in with another drop goal among his 14 points contribution and there was also a monster penalty from the siege-gun boot of Leigh Halfpenny to steer the Blues home in front of a Thursday night crowd of more than 11,000.
Connacht outside half Ian Keatley got the scoreboard moving with a fifth minute penalty and he added another before the break to leave his side trailing 16-6. As the rain poured down in the second half, so the error count rose and further points became hard to come by.
But two long range penalties from Parks and Halfpenny edged the home side further ahead and moved them to the top of the table – at least for a few days.
