Brendon Leonard has not been happy with his form or that of his Chiefs team this season but after the breakthrough finally came in round six in Rotorua on Saturday night, the All Black halfback almost sounded down.

Leonard played himself to a virtual standstill at International Stadium, scoring two of his team's six tries in a 43-27 Super 14 win over the Bulls and matching his standout forwards with a high-tempo performance that put him back at the head of the queue for the All Blacks' No 9 jersey this season.

"I certainly felt it in the first half.

"It was a big thing for us to try and lift the tempo this week and run them off their feet.

"I think we finally achieved that at the back end of the second half," an exhausted Leonard said after the match that left the Chiefs in a share of seventh place (ninth on points differential) with a three win-three loss record.

While it took the accumulated weight of possession and territory to wear the Bulls down in the tackle, the signs of Chiefs' dominance came early through their much improved forwards at both set piece and at the breakdowns.

"They sort of had the onus on them this week to front up and I thought they did that tonight better than what they have all season," Leonard said.

"That gave us some great front-foot ball and I think we used it well."

Leonard said it made all the difference to him to have a solid forward set-piece platform to work off, particularly at scrum time, and from there the loose forwards were able to launch themselves and dominate the collisions and the backs able to create space behind and outside the defence.

"That's the mentality we've got to have in this competition.

"We've got to now put a stake in the ground in that area and move forward from there," he said.

"There's still gains to be made in those areas but tonight was obviously a much-improved performance."

It was now vital the Chiefs kicked on from here and Leonard said they could not afford to switch off in any area as they tried to battle their way back up the table.

"We're going to come up against a tough opposition next week in the Highlanders, we've got to make sure we improve again and one area to improve on is that we should have shut the Bulls out a bit earlier on tonight, instead of letting them get a couple of tries in the middle part of the second half.

"If we can brush up on that area I think we'll be where we should be."

The Chiefs complete their run of five home games with the Highlanders match at 5.30pm at Waikato Stadium this Saturday.

They then go to Canberra to play the Brumbies, have their bye, are home for two more matches and complete their season with games in Perth, Johannesburg and Durban.

Black halfback almost sounded down.