Canterbury have eased to a convincing 38-20 win over Auckland in their National Provincial Championship showdown at Christchurch on Friday.
After falling behind early, the Cantabrians cashed in on a second Auckland yellow card to reel off 21 points in a 10-minute stretch leading into halftime, before extending their unanswered scoring streak to 31 points early in the second stanza to put the contest to bed.
The win over second-placed Auckland is Canterbury's sixth straight, consolidating their place atop the Evens Conference and making another statement to the rest of the competition with the playoffs looming just a fortnight away.
The visitors got off to the ideal start, when halfback Taufa Funaki placed a crafty chip kick from the base of a ruck 22m out for Salesi Rayasi to burst through and claim next to the posts to give Auckland a lead just three minutes in.
They pushed their advantage to 10 points via a Harry Plummer penalty, which they managed to defend despite being reduced to 14-men after Blake Gibson dropped his knee on defender Tom Christie.
But the second sinbinning of the evening was a different story. Canterbury's first try came with a helping hand - quite literally - from Auckland's Funaki, who illegally batted a grubber dead in his own in-goal with a chaser approaching in the 32nd minute, costing his side a penalty try, copping a yellow card in the process, and sparking a 10-minute try-scoring blitz for the hosts.
Three minutes later, lock Dominic Gardiner produced a brilliant individual effort to charge down a clear kick inside the Auckland 22m and pounce on the loose ball for his team's second.
Then in expired time, wing Manasa Mataele strolled over untouched courtesy of a superb long pass by Alex Harford to send the hosts into the interval with a 21-10 lead.
Canterbury continued their momentum in the second half, with Harford's long-range drop-goal closely followed by a try to Christie to extend their advantage to 21 points with 30 minutes to play, as a blowout threatened.
But the Aucklanders stemmed the tide with a try to No. 8 Jackson Pugh, who powered his way to grazing the chalk in the 62nd minute.
The impressive Rameka Pohipi jinked his way over with a scintillating solo effort over minutes later to restore Canterbury's 21-point lead.
Auckland engineered a slick backline move to send replacement Joel Cobb over in the corner with five minutes remaining.
But there was more salt yet to be rubbed into the visitors' wounds. The night ended with a red card to flanker Niko Jones for a high tackle on George Bridge from which he came off second best, stretchered off the field in a medicab.
In next week's final round of conference play, Canterbury will face Otago at Dunedin on Saturday, while Auckland head home to take on Taranaki.
Canterbury 38 (Christie, Mataele, Gardiner, Pohipi tries, penalty try, Harford 4 con, drop goal) Auckland 21 (Rayasi, Pugh, Cobb tries, Plummer con, pen)
