Colour Tana Umaga impressed. The Blues coach has been given carte blanche to revive his ailing Super Rugby franchise, and on Friday night at Eden Park he got a close-up look at the standard they have to reach for.

That it came in the form of the outfit he carved out a long career for as a player in the Hurricanes made the lesson even more poignant. The Blues want what the capital has in spades, and they clearly remain a long, long way from that mark.

For 50 minutes the Blues lived with the Hurricanes in what was surely their last roll of the playoff dice. They trailed 14-8 at the half, but got their noses in front when prop Ofa Tu'ungafasi charged over early in the second spell. The punter who had dropped $100k on a Canes victory must have been sweating bullets.

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Sonny Bill Williams had some positive moments for the Blues but could not stop them plunging to another defeat to the Hurricanes.

Then the Hurricanes, behind an outstanding pack effort, simply went to work when it mattered, scoring the last three tries of the match to squeeze the life out of their hosts and secure the all-important bonus point in a 36-15 victory that was as comfortable as that margin suggested.

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The gap between these teams remains a void, which the statistics lay bare. The Canes have now won nine straight matches since dropping their season opener in Pretoria and are locked in a fabulous battle with the equally impressive Crusaders for the overall No 1 seed.

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Right now the Hurricanes are the standard that Tana Umaga and the Blues can only dream about reaching.

But they have also won their last six against the Blues in a streak stretching back to 2014, and their last four on the bounce at Eden Park. There were platitudes aplenty from the visitors post-game about what a tough place this is to win, but they were words without meaning.

The Blues, on the other hand, remained lock in a Groundhog Day spiral of despair against the measuring stick that is their fellow Kiwi sides. They have now gone 16 games winless against New Zealand franchises, and have won just one of their last 26 matchups against their compatriots.

They have also lost all five home matches in 2018. Fortress, schmortess!

Asked if they had just received a lesson in the clinical rugby played at the top end of this competition, Umaga, who will have his term extended as coach of this franchise soon, told Stuff: "Totally. Totally. They are a team coming off an eight-win streak and they've obviously got things pretty down pat. Like you say, clinical.

"In certain aspects we were clinical. Defensively the system we put in place to try cut down their key men and their space and time, I thought that worked really well. Yet we didn't take the opportunities that were afforded us. Then we were defending for longer moments. That's not what you want do for most of the game."

Umaga had to admit that the Hurricanes were now the team everyone in this competition was chasing.

"It was probably one of the better performances I've seen them put in. They lifted, as they do in these derbies, and we lifted defensively and in our intensity around that area as well. It does mean a lot to everyone playing in [these derbies].

"They (the Hurricanes) don't fluster very much, and they're very clinical and patient around what they're trying to achieve. They've got a guy there (Beauden Barrett) that's running them pretty well and got them on a string at the moment, and everyone is just doing their job. They're just enjoying what they're doing and playing with good confidence."

There were some positives for the Blues, who drop to 3-8 and just 17 competition points. With still three more of these all-Kiwi affairs to come, their playoff hopes are now cooked.

Sonny Bill Williams' return to the midfield was a success. The bruising No 12 was strong on the carry, set up a peach of a try to Orbyn Leger with a blind offload, and was impactful on defence. He looks ready for test rugby after his six-week injury absence.

Tu'ungafasi and Patrick Tuipulotu showed glimpses of their class and defensively the Blues were mostly successful in blunting that dangerous visiting backline.

But rugby isn't a 50-minute game. You can't switch off with still a half-hour to go. You can't give penalties away at the rate the Blues did (the count was 14-6 agin the hosts). You can't lose three of your five lineouts and you certainly can't commit the errors Umaga's men did.

Right now the Canes are the standard that the Blues can only dream about reaching.

 - Stuff