A crucial penalty in the dying seconds from Blues captain Ross Winney sealed a deserved draw against promotion-chasing Ealing Trailfinders.
He was successful with all six of his attempts on his way to a 14-point haul from the boot, while there were tries from Tom Mantell, Josh Fowles and Ed Stobart as well as a superb individual effort from talisman Charlie Mulchrone.
Blues director of rugby and head coach Geoff Wappett was full of praise for his side who threw the form book out of the window to stall the visitors’ hopes of promotion.
He said: "I was really pleased with the way we played. We knew just how good a side Ealing are but we tend to raise our game against the best opposition.
"We went a bit flat around the hour mark, which allowed Ealing to take control of the game, but we found ourselves back in it with 10 minutes to go and our attitude was fantastic."
The home side got off to the worst possible start before the match even started.
Ryan Parkinson suffered a back injury in the warm-up so the home squad started a man down.
The match got off to a nervous start for the home side and they had to absorb a lot of pressure from Ealing who opened the scoring two minutes in.
The score shocked Blues into life and, just three minutes later, Mulchrone levelled the match with one of the tries of the campaign.
Catching his opponents off guard, Mulchrone took a quick tap-penalty before evading a pair of tackles and side-stepping a third to touch down under the posts. Winney added the extras to move Blues into the lead.
Tom Eaton was sin-binned for foul play but that didn’t halt the Blues’ pressure and, having been camped on their opponents’ line for countless phases, the prop Mantell spotting a crack in the creaking defence to extend his side’s lead even further.
Ealing remained a threat with ball in hand though, and Sam Wardingley’s converted effort reduced the arrears to just two points, before Winney’s penalty just before the break gave his side a five-point advantage to take into half-time.
Many around Priory Park expected a backlash from the visitors after the interval, and it started briefly through Owen Bruynseels; the winger levelling the match at 17-17.
Blues hit back almost immediately with two tries in five minutes to send the home side racing into the lead.
The first came through Fowles, who collected a wide pass to touch down in the corner, before Stobart picked up the ball in midfield before surging down the right-hand side to seal the bonus point for Blues, both converted by the faultless Winney.
Chasing a win to keep their promotion hopes alive, the West London side started to live up to their reputation and fired in three tries in 18 second-half minutes to stun the Blues faithful and turn the match on its head.
With just over 10 minutes left, the result looked to be sealed with Ealing dominating but Blues found some energy and kept on fighting.
The game moved towards its closing stages and as the match ticked into overtime, Blues got one last reprieve thanks to a penalty advantage just inside the Ealing 22.
Blues spread the ball out wide, and Winney could have won it outright for his side, but was cruelly dragged into touch just yards out from the line.
The play was brought back and Winney made no mistake with the penalty earning his side a deserved share of the spoils.
Wappett added: "We could and probably should have had five points but, in the same breath, we could have ended up with just the one, so to take three points from the game is fair really.
"At the end of the day, I would rather be taking three points out of the game than having to be gracious in defeat."
