The Auckland Blues secured a hard-fought 14-8 victory Saturday over the Stormers as they held off a frantic final assault by the home team at the Newlands Stadium.

It was a huge defensive effort by the Blues, who made nearly twice the number of tackles managed by the opposition.

The visitors were assisted by some poor handling by the Stormers who too often spilled the ball in the tackle, limiting their ability to take advantage of their possession.

"We're just stoked to be able to win away from home," said Blues captain Keven Mealamu.

His counterpart blamed the defeat on his side's inability to take its chances.

"We made too many mistakes," said Stormers captain Jean de Villiers.

"We had our opportunities, but we couldn't capitalise on them."

Peter Grant started the scoring with an 11th minute penalty for the Stormers before Blues right wing Paul Williams took advantage of a neatly worked overlap to scurry over in the 22nd minute.

Springbok second-string scrumhalf Ricky Januarie then pounced on a poorly controlled ball at the base of a Blues scrum, toed it through and picked up a kind bounce to fall over for a try in reply in the 32nd minute.

A Williams penalty tied up the scores at 8-8.

The Stormers started the second half in impressive fashion but repeatedly knocked the ball on after making the initial break.

Williams, in the meantime, took advantage of infrequent Blues visits to the Stormers 22-metre area with two penalties, the last of which in the 79th minute.

The Stormers attacked hard from the final kickoff, but contrived to knock on one more time when over the Blues try line.

Auckland then cleared after the siren and celebrated a deserved victory.

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