It felt in those heady days of magical rugby as if the Blues could live there forever and Super Rugby would sit in their pocket for an eternity.
But that grip proved more fragile than anyone realised and the last tenuously clinging finger was prised free in 2005.
That was the beginning of the end; the year it all started to go wrong.
New backs coach Joe Schmidt never got Spencer at all. The two men had different views, different ideas and by the end of March the relationship was hanging by a thread.
Spencer was accused of not following the game plan and out he went - replaced by Tasesa Lavea. Suddenly the Blues were adrift at sea, where they have roamed like zombie pirates since. They had an itchy foot but rather than scratch it - they chopped it off.
Which rational judge of talent could have believed in Lavea ahead of Spencer? The great man was only 29 when they let him go - short of confidence but not talent.
He had rugby left in him and, had the Blues been patient, they could have nursed him back to form and who knows, Spencer may have been around for another five years and the Blues may have won more titles.
Every champion side in Super Rugby history has had a champion first five: Spencer, Andrew Mehrtens, Stephen Larkham, Daniel Carter, Morne Steyn and Quade Cooper.
That's the list and it is indisputable; Steyn might appear an anomaly but he's brilliant in a limited scope and his particular skills are integral to the way the Bulls play. The first question any Super Rugby coach aspiring to win the title should ask: do they have a first five who could sit credibly on that list?
Clearly the Blues haven't asked that or deluded themselves if they have.
In a way, the Blues have been doubly cursed by their own folly; not only have they been knocked off their perch, they haven't been able to exorcise the ghost of Spencer from their No 10 jersey.
It is sadly a shirt no one really wants to wear and those who have been brave enough, simply haven't been good enough. Hours, days, weeks even could be spent dissecting the anatomy of the Blues' failure since 2003 but any thesis could be reduced to one line - they haven't had a first five good enough to steer them to a title.
Were they ever title contenders with Lavea at 10 - a player they posted to the Chiefs in 2007 only to take back two years later despite being even less certain about him then than they were when they let him go.
On the eve of the 2009 competition, he had hardly set the bar particularly high. "If I perform, then there will not be so much rubbish thrown at me," he told NZ Rugby World. "But if I don't perform and the Blues lose, then I guess it's Lavea's fault again."
The Blues took him back only because they lacked confidence in their first choice - Jimmy Gopperth. They'd picked him up from the Hurricanes' discard pile and got what they paid for. That didn't deter them from shopping in the bargain bins.
Stephen Brett was hauled out of Christchurch after the Blues had unsuccessfully tried to recruit a series of bigger names.
They tried Dan Carter and he was probably more flattered than tempted. Jonny Wilkinson and Juan Martin Hernandez were supposedly on the shopping list.
Brett was brave. Brett was at times penetrative and visionary but he had this incurable ability to commit costly errors.
A beauty queen prone to acne is not a beauty queen.
The only season in the last seven when the Blues had a potentially title-winning No 10 was 2008. That was the one season Nick Evans played for the Blues and he arrived in form as the only All Black to have enhanced his standing at the World Cup. Incredibly, the Blues used him more at fullback than at first five.
Even perennial optimists will be struggling to believe 2012 is going to end the curse.
The Blues can and probably will turn their season around.
They may end up sneaking into the play-offs but it's a stretch to see them winning.
It comes back to that same question: who in their current squad can be added to that hall of first five fame?
Gareth Anscombe is not of that calibre - not yet anyway - and with the best will in the world, nor is Michael Hobbs.
What about Piri Weepu - is he a title-winning 10? He's gifted, can read the game and kick goals. There's enough there to be intrigued but, against the best sides, can Weepu break the line?
Perhaps the most damning evidence that the Blues will fall short yet again is that it isn't even clear who their best first five actually is.
No side has ever won the championship by experimenting with their selections at No 10, yet that is exactly what the Blues are likely to do.
"Obviously Carlos left some big shoes to fill and no one has really done anything consistently since and that is a challenge for Gareth, Piri and I, whoever goes out there each week to put the boys in good positions on the park," said Hobbs before the team left for South Africa.
The curse of Carlos - it is a real and present danger.
