IT may be Colin Bourke's last game for Bay of Plenty but he is not letting emotion get in the road of ending the season on a high.
Tomorrow the 26-year-old will lead his team out at Stadium Southland in Invercargill in the final round of the ITM Cup against the Stags.
Steamers' finals hopes are still alive and if they can win tomorrow and a couple of other games go their way, Bourke believes his team has the juice to top their season with the title.
Although tomorrow's game could be the captain's last, he said the team were focused on more important things.
"It's been pretty relaxed, the same as usual I suppose. I guess the main objective is to win. No one really cares about me," Bourke joked.
"I guess there has been a little bit [of emotion]. It was more so probably last game - being my last home game, against Canterbury. We're still a shot at the finals, so I don't want to take any of the focus away from that."
Bourke hadn't made any final decisions on when, who or where he would play rugby next season.
"That's undecided still at the moment. I just have a few options tabled at the moment. I guess I'm in a pretty good position where I can have a few options overseas, obviously the option of staying as well," Bourke said.
"This will probably be my last [national provincial competition]. I'll either play Super 15 and leave after that or maybe leave in the coming months. We'll see how it pans out in the next few weeks."
Although Bourke wasn't ready to reveal which clubs had approached the No 8, he was able to confirm he would prefer to play rugby in Europe but there were some options in Japan as well.
But Bourke's main priority was to finish the ITM Cup season the best way possible which meant working on how to combat Southland.
"They [Southland] have the possibility of relegation and they won't want to, so they'll come out fired up and take on our forwards. They're a huge pack and a lot of emphasis is around their pack. I guess for our forwards this week it's going to be business as usual."
Bourke, who will play his 90th game tomorrow, said the teams played a similar style. "They try and use the ball [through the forwards] as well as us and they've got a pretty decent pack and they back themselves there as well.
"I think there are quite a few similarities between the two teams not only on the field but off the field. Obviously they have quite a strong team culture in their province."
The Steamers have 26 points and sit fourth on the table behind Canterbury, on 29, Waikato, on 28, and Taranaki on 27 points.
If they can get a bonus point win against Southland that will go a long way to securing them a finals spot in the premiership providing Auckland beat Waikato and Hawke's Bay beat Taranaki.
The clash is due to kick off at 2.35pm tomorrow at Stadium Southland .
Steamers Squad: Bronson Murray, Dan Perrin, Josh Hohneck, Leon Power, Culum Retallick, Tanerau Latimer, Luke Braid, Colin Bourke (captain), Josh Hall, Chris Noakes, Lance MacDonald, Jason Hona, Phil Burleigh, Ben Smith, Toby Arnold. Reserves: John Pareanga, Tristan Moran, Luke Andrews, Sam Cane, Lewis Hancock, Dan Waenga, Nick McCashin, Pingi Talaapitaga