A second week down in rugby's Super 14 and the Crusaders and Blues are still playing a different game to everyone else. Check out our review of Round Two.

New Zealand's two premier franchises continued to make the rest of the field look like cart horses as they ran amok on the South African high veldt in round two.

Playing a game based on speed and adventure, both sides scored seven tries and raised half-centuries at venues once regarded as daunting.

The Blues thumped the Lions 55-10 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg this morning, 24 hours after the Crusaders outclassed the defending champion Bulls a short trip up the motorway at Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld.

The only teams to snare bonus-point wins in the first round, the six-time champion Crusaders and triple title-holding Blues were on their own again this weekend.

No other team has scored more than 23 points in either of their games, yet the two competition leaders -- the Crusaders are ahead by three differential points -- are averaging nearly double that.

Blues coach David Nucifora didn't want to get carried away just yet.

"It's good in this competition to get out of the blocks well at the start (but) there's a long way to go," he said.

"We're able to keep the pressure on our opponents because we're reasonably fit and obviously we have a fair bit of speed in our team, which certainly helps."

Married to the backline class in both teams are forward packs that have been sound at set piece and dominant at the breakdown.

"That's probably a similarity to the Crusaders, we have a platform to play off and there are some advantages there (under the Experimental Law Variations)."

Both teams also boast gifted playmakers.

Blues first five-eighth Nick Evans tormented the Lions with his pace and scored 25 points, including a brilliant try and nine-from-nine with his goalkicking.

The Crusaders possess a two-card trick. Carter has all of Evans' game-breaking and goalkicking class but also possesses a brilliant lieutenant in Stephen Brett at second five-eighth.

The converted No 10 was all class against a Bulls side who struggled with his acceleration and footwork and marked himself as an early favourite to fill the vacant All Blacks No 12 jersey.

There are no such bright points for the three other New Zealand teams, who were involved in tight trans-Tasman stoushes.

The Hurricanes and Chiefs weren't flash but both emerged from home games with their first wins of the season while the Highlanders were pipped 22-20 by the ACT Brumbies for a second straight loss.

Dynamic winger Ma'a Nonu was a spark for the Hurricanes in their 23-18 defeat of the Queensland Reds although he was one of countless players still guilty of losing possession.

The Chiefs squandered 17-0 lead against the New South Wales Waratahs on a slippery Waikato Stadium, with the visitors scoring three rapid tries to level the scores.

Waratahs first five-eighth Kurtley Beale missed a late conversion that would have put his side ahead before opposite number Stephen Donald -- who endured an otherwise uncomfortable game -- stepped up to slot a winning penalty two minutes from time.

The Highlanders had every chance to make it a New Zealand clean sweep but didn't take their chances at Canberra Stadium against the injury-ravaged Brumbies.

They trailed by 10 at halftime but dominated the second spell and would have hit the front near the end if winger Fetu'u Vainikolo had not been ankle-tapped with the line open, or if fullback James Wilson landed a kickable penalty.

The Western Force put the controversy over axed halfback Matt Henjack behind them with last-gasp 16-15 defeat of the Cheetahs while the Sharks needed penalties to pip the Stormers in a coastal derby at Durban this morning.

It left the Cheetahs and Stormers winless -- alongside the Highlanders -- and bracing for respective home matches next weekend against the Blues and Crusaders.