Steamers gamble on tight five's tenacity

Lessons learned from last year see a change to the Bay of Plenty Steamers starting line-up for this Saturday's Air New Zealand Cup match against Otago in Dunedin.
Mark Burman comes into the locking position for John Moore alongside Culum Retallick in a minor rotation among the forwards, who are still without All Blacks flanker Tanerau Latimer.
Steamers head coach Sean Horan confirmed it was a rotation of sorts. "We've got five games to go and we've learned from last year that we started to drift away," said Horan of the change in the Steamers' tight-five.
It seems like sound thinking. Last year's effort started to wane as the same weary tight forwards were selected week after week as the season ground on. This year the season is even longer.
Burman last started at lock against Waikato when he did a fair job but his last start was at blindside flanker in a lacklustre loss to Southland in Invercargill.
Latimer is on a week off  after the All Blacks' Tri Nations campaign and Horan said while he didn't believe the flanker physically needed a rest, the break would freshen him up for the next round.
"He's back on a case-by-case basis and hasn't had a break until now. Mentally he'll come back fresh next Monday and be ready to step up against Hawke's Bay."
It's expected both Otago's All Blacks - Adam Thomson and Tom Donnelly - will play the game. 
Horan said they resisted any changes to the Bay's backline division after they turned in a good performance against Tasman. 
"It's a reward for the likes of Toby Arnold and allows some finetuning. Last week was the first time we launched well from set piece," he said.
Meanwhile, A TAB punter has bet $150,000 on Wellington to beat Southland in their national championship rugby match tonight, after a number of All Blacks returned to the team lineup.
At $1.36 the bet has a possible return of $204,000 and a profit of $54,000.
All Blacks Cory Jane, Hosea Gear and Rodney So'oialo return to the Wellington side this week, while Southland All Black Jimmy Cowan was unavailable.
Steamers v Otago:
Toby Arnold, Nigel Hunt, Wayne Hughson, Phil Burleigh, Jason Hona, Mike Delany Junior Poluleuligaga, Colin Bourke (c), Luke Braid, Zac Hohneck, Culum Retallick, Mark Burman, James McGougan, John Pareanga, Joe Savage. Reserves: Dean Elmiger, Josh Hohneck, John Moore, Matt Henwood, Ben Smith, Cory Aporo, Zar Lawrence.