Mitre 10 Cup: Steamers gear up for Saturday's match

Bay of Plenty Steamers head coach Clayton McMillan says he is wary of the threat the Magpies pose. Photo / Andrew Warner

There are three personnel changes and one positional switch in the Bay of Plenty Steamers starting 15 for the Mitre 10 Cup match against Hawke's Bay in Napier tomorrow.

Chase Tiatia, a try scorer in each of the last two games, reverts to fullback from the wing while Matthew Garland returns to the wing.

Liam Steel, after play off the bench in the match against Canterbury, resumes his role at centre.

In the forwards, the only change is at lock where Tyler Ardron is away at a family wedding so Kane Le'aupepe comes back to the second row and will partner Baden Wardlaw.

Even though this is the Steamers first match against one of the tier two Championship teams, coach Clayton McMillan is very wary of the threat the Magpies pose.

"Hawke's Bay have got off to a great start. They're traditionally hard to beat down in Hawke's Bay. They have a new coaching team and they have some new young guys and some energy and enthusiasm that we need to respect.

"If we don't it could be a long day at the office," McMillan says.

Hawke's Bay lead the Championship division by virtue of high scoring wins over Southland and Otago and a close loss to Counties–Manukau where they picked up two bonus points.

Steamers second five eighth Terrence Hepetema reckons not too much should be read into that.

"No disrespect to Hawke's Bay, but they've probably had a bit easier start than us.

"Having said that, we have to be really accurate this week. We found out against Canterbury what happens if you make a few errors."

But the man who scored the try early in the second half, which put Bay of Plenty ahead 19-14 at Tauranga Domain last Saturday, still takes tremendous satisfaction from what in the end was a 12 point loss to the defending champions.

"If they're the best in the competition, then we're not far away. "

There's no place in the squad this Saturday for teeenage fullback Kaleb Trask. That's despite a quality display at fullback against Canterbury.

But there's a good reason – he's off to Taupo to play for Bay of Plenty at the Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under 19s tournament.

After big wins over Waikato and Taranaki in seeding matches, Bay of Plenty are in the top 8 division and start their programme on Sunday morning – coincidenatlly also against Hawkes Bay.

Trask will stay in the Under 19 team as long as the Bay has a chance of winning the national title.

Bay of Plenty Steamers to play Hawkes Bay
At McLean Park, Napier
Saturday September 8 at 4.35 pm
Chase Tiatia
Fa'asui Fuatai
Liam Steel
Terrence Hepetema
Matthew Garland
Mike Delany
Richard Judd
Hoani Matenga
Mitch Karpik
Baden Wardlaw
Kane Le'aupepe
Tanerau Latimer
Ross Geldenhuys
Tom Crozier
Solomona Sakalia
Reserves:
James Lay
Angus MacDonald
Jeff Thwaites
Aaron Carroll
Hugh Blake
Luke Campbell
Jason Robertson
Trael Joass