The Chiefs and Crusaders won their fourth consecutive matches to remain the early class in Super Rugby on Friday.
The Hamilton-based Chiefs beat the Melbourne Rebels 27-14 with a bonus point to take a three-point lead over the Christchurch-based Crusaders in the New Zealand conference. Their win came shortly after the Crusaders came from well behind once again to beat the Auckland-based Blues 33-24.
The only other unbeaten team, the Cape Town, South Africa-based Stormers, won't have a chance to improve on their season record this weekend. The Stormers had a bye.
In South Africa, the Bulls beat the Sunwolves 34-21 but made it hard for themselves against the strugglers from Japan when flanker Renaldo Bothma was sent off for a high tackle in the opening minute of the second half.
The Bulls, three-time champions, collected their first win but missed out on a bonus point at home ahead of a two-match tour of New Zealand to play the Chiefs and Blues.
Earlier, the Crusaders put on a late show for the third straight game.
After coming from 21 points down to beat the Highlanders 30-27, and from 17 points behind to beat the Queensland Reds 22-20 in injury time, the Crusaders scored 28 straight points to recover from a 24-5 deficit just after halftime against the Blues.
Center George Moala scored two tries and winger Manasa Mataele scored another as the Blues took advantage of 60 percent of possession and 16 missed tackles by the Crusaders to lead 21-5 at halftime. Piers Francis, starting for the first time at flyhalf, converted all three tries and added a penalty six minutes after halftime.
But the tide turned when the Crusaders were able to capture more possession and break the Blues' dominance in the contest for possession on the ground.
Two Crusaders tries from lineout drives, an area in which they were dominant, cut the Blues' lead to 24-19 nearly an hour in.
Replacements Peter Samu and Ben Funnell scored those tries and the Crusaders went close to several more as the Blues appeared completely lost attempting to defend the rolling maul. Mitchell Hunt converted his own try with seven minutes to go and Mitchell Drummond made certain of the comeback by going over in the last minute.
''It would be quite nice if we started before halftime but a win's a win,'' Crusaders captain Sam Whitelock said.
In Melbourne, Chiefs flanker Sam Cane scored in the 77th minute to help clinch the match before Shaun Stevenson added a bonus-point try.
The Rebels trailed 7-3 at halftime after three missed penalties by Reece Hodge, but led three minutes into the second half through winger Marika Koroibete's try before the Chiefs' late comeback.
Cane said the only positives his team could take from the match were the competition points and the last five minutes, admitting they ''won ugly.''
''They were physical and direct and to be fair we struggled with that,'' Cane said.
In Pretoria, the Bulls led the Sunwolves only 17-14 at halftime after winger Kenki Fukuoka's sizzling run down the left to score in the corner for the visitors just before the break.
Bothma caught Sunwolves captain Ed Quirk with a forearm to the head straight from the second-half kickoff and was given a red card, leaving the Bulls up against it.
They toughed it out, scoring two tries through center Jan Serfontein - his second of the game - and lock Jason Jenkins.
Sunwolves replacement Liaki Moli had a try disallowed in the last seconds, but it was initially awarded, and the conversion was taken and missed, before referee Jamie Nutbrown was advised by television match official Mike Vos to review whether Moli had control of the ball when he went over the line. He didn't.
Despite the win the Bulls, whose last Super Rugby title was in 2010, are well off the pace in the South African standings.
