The Blues have extended their winning start to the season in a thrilling replay of last season's Super Rugby Aupiki grand final. Make sure you join us again on Tribe in a little bit for the second leg of this double header between the Blues and the Brumbies in Super Rugby Pacific. It's been a pleasure bringing you all the action this afternoon from Eden Park in Auckland. For now, Harrison Ryburn signing out.

Next up for the Blues is a trip South for a clash with Matatū next Saturday afternoon in Nelson. Meanwhile, the Chiefs will be hoping to end their winless streak when they return home for a clash with the Hurricanes.

Chiefs captain Kennedy Tukuafu was the best player on the park with her workrate both in possession and in the tackle, stealing a number of turnovers at the breakdown too. Anderson, Coates, and Houpapa-Barrett followed her with strong performances up front, whilst Tui always looked dangerous in the backline. Ultimately the Chiefs will be left wondering how they let it slip at Eden park again though, and they remain without a win to start the new season.

More misery for the Chiefs, and just like the grand final last season, they've let victory slip from them late on against the Blues. They dictated and dominated the defending champions for the vast majority of this contest, putting on a performance that was of stark contrast to their opening round defeat to Matatū last week. Not many teams have been able to nullify the Blues up front in recent times, but that's exactly what the Manawa did, forcing errors from their opponents, and putting themselves into attacking field position.

It was the class of the Blues star-studded backline that proved the difference, with tries Vaha'akolo and Woodman-Wickliffe that will live long in the memory. Both were standouts for the way they lifted in crucial moments, but Demant was also terrific with her workrate in midfield. Vaipulu lead the physical effort with a number of strong carries, in an otherwise tough day up front. They've been left bruised and battered, but have managed to weather a Manawa storm to extend their winning start to the new season.

The Blues will be relieved to have come through that with the victory. For the vast majority they were pummelled by the Chiefs in the collision zone, so much so that they struggled to get their own formidable forward pack to lay down the platform they so often do up front. It led to a number of errors, particuarly around their discipline. The Blues were shown three yellow cards across the course of the match, but they continued to fight, and showed great spirit to hold on and restrict the Chiefs to just 22 points.

Full-time at Eden Park and the just like last season's grand final, the Blues have stolen victory over the Chiefs at the death. The defending champions were under the pump for large stages, and struggled with their discipline throughout. A couple of sensational tries from the Blues backline proved the difference though, with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe providing yet another reminder of her class to win it late on. That makes it 2-0 for the Blues to start the 2025 campaign, whilst the Chiefs will feel hard done-by to drop to 0-2.

Demant fails to add the extras from wide on the right.