Three unanswered tries in the first half set up a second win of the season for the Sharks defeating Blues 26 to 7.
Akira Ioane of the Blues runs at the defence of Cameron Wright Photo: ©Backpagepix 2018
The Blues inability to cross the line in the first half against the Sharks sealed their fate early in hot conditions.
A try on his home debut at King's Park for fullback Aphelele Fassi in the seventh minute was followed by scores from Akker van der Merwe and Robert du Preez, both at the end of driving mauls, to lead 19-0 at halftime.
It took the Blues just over an hour to get their try, as debutant Tanielu Tele'a went over with his first opportunity after coming on as a replacement.
But as the Auckland side looked to finish strongly, Sharks back Curwin Bosch picked up a loose ball to run almost the length of the field for the Sharks' fourth and bonus point try just before the final whistle.
"It's a huge disappointment, we struggled to cope with the heat and never got our game going... everytime we felt we were making headway we fell short," says Blues head coach Leon McDonald.
"We turned things around a little bit after halftime although the scoreboard didn't reflect that... a disallowed try was quite unfortunate,
"The most disappointing thing was we were responsible for most of the mistakes, you can handle being beaten by a team who plays exceptionally well but when you play a big part int he loss through individual errors it's hard to swallow."
