Mitre 10 Cup: Bay and Manawatu in battle of the losers tonight

Bay of Plenty Steamers player Chase Tiatia during a training session. Photo / File

It's unkind, but the facts are unavoidable.

Tonight's Mitre 10 Cup Championship match between the Bay of Plenty Steamers and the Manawatu Turbos at Rotorua International Stadium is a battle of the losers.

Bay of Plenty, after that promising start last month, have now dropped four matches in succession. That's nothing compared to the opposition though.

Remarkably Manawatu started their campaign with a win over Waikato. They've now lost six in a row and are 6th on the Championship table, one place below the Steamers, having played one more game.

In their most recent outing, on Sunday, the Turbos were whipped 49-7 by Wellington.

Maybe it's the unconvincing form of tonight's opposition that has Steamers assistant coach Rodney Gibbs not feeling too stressed.

"We've been in these positions over the past couple of years," he says.

"There's been pressure on us in terms of our points on the table. But we're still confident we're going to make the semi-finals."

Gibbs, though, needs his players to reduce turnovers through their own errors.

"We can't afford to keep doing that. We've spoken about gifting them metres" he says.

"We haven't had enough (scrum) put-ins inside their 22. We're gifting opposition teams put-ins inside our 22 and we need to make adjustments there to even be in the game."

But he realises there are issues with his team's forwards, especially with the number of long term injuries to front line players like front rowers Aidan Ross, Sab Siataga and more recently Liam Polwart.

But a tough South African has made a significant contribution.

"The reason we've brought Ross Geldenhuys in is for some experience and he's been great. But in the forwards, there's no quick fixes.

"They're long-term processes. We're working hard to ensure we've got some good coaching in place to make sure we can bring guys through."

But for this game against Manawatu, Gibbs knows his team must be better up front.

"We need to be at least equal at set piece if not better. That means ensuring we get good quality ball on our put-ins and then working really hard to put some pressure on their ball."

Injuries have forced some changes to tonight's starting fifteen with experienced second five-eighth Terrence Hepetema not able to play.

So in the backline reshuffle, Liam Steel and Fa'asiu Fuatai both come in a place, while Matt Garland and Bailey Simonsson are the wings.

There's a bit of a shuffle in the forwards too with number eight Hoani Matenga fit again, Mitch Karpik returns on the openside flank for the injured Hugh Blake and captain Tyler Ardron moves to the blindside.

Baden Wardlaw joins Kane Le'aupepe at lock.

Bay of Plenty should be the favourites tonight. As is common in the Mitre 10 Cup, both sides are on fast turnarounds. The Steamers are only six days on from their last match, while Manawatu have it even tougher. They not only played last Sunday, but last Wednesday as well.

The home team will therefore be looking to ram home the advantage against a team who've leaked 78 points in their last two outings. It's time for the Steamers to rejoin the winners party.

MITRE 10 CUP
What: Bay of Plenty v Manawatu
Where: Rotorua International Stadium
When: Tonight, 7.35pm