Steamers primed for Lions

Kevin Senio believes his Bay of Plenty side will go into the Lions match next month in good spirits following the revived Chiefsperformance at the tail end of the Super 12.
Senio started Saturday's match against the Highlanders with All Black halfback Byron Kelleher injured. His swift passing and sharp running was a feature in the 31-8 thrashing of the southern men which helped elevate the Chiefs into sixth in the final standings.
A 30-man squad to face the Lions was announced yesterday and with nine Steamers fulltime in the Chiefs and several more in the train-on squad, Senio reckons there's a buzz in the squad which is sure to filter through into the Lions match.
"We're going to go into it on a bit of high after this finish - a few of us have had quite a bit of game time and we'll be pretty inspired going into the Lions game," Senio said.
"It's something that's been in the back of the guys' minds, especially the Bay boys. We've been talking about it at training and it's something pretty exciting.
"It's cool because the Super 12 campaign was pretty special to be a part of and now we've got something else to look forward to after it."
Despite the four wins, a draw and a loss in the last six rounds of the competition, it was a tough season for Senio, who battled gamely back from a broken ankle suffered during the NPC only to find Kelleher occupying the No 9 jersey for much of the season.
His early runs showed glimpses of rustiness but by the time Saturday night's match rolled around, he was back somewhere near his best. He had direct input into Sitiveni Sivivatu's first and third tries in the first half and provided first-five Steven Donald ample time to set the rest of the backline free.
"The key and what Fozzie (coach Ian Foster) has been trying to drum into us was just to transfer the ball as quickly as we could and he set that in the beginning of the year. We took a while to actually do it but we did it pretty well in the end."
Senio was putting a positive spin on his duel with Kelleher to start throughout the year.
"I would have loved to have got out there a lot more but I've had to just sit and bide my time. If anything, I've taken the attitude of learning as much as I can from Byron. He's a top man and I have learned a lot."
The outstanding Bay of Plenty contributors to the Chiefs were lock Bernie Upton, who started the last six matches, and prop Ben Castle, who continued to hone his tighthead game superbly.
Wayne Ormond, Simms Davison, Aleki Lutui and Adrian Cashmore were steady while Grant McQuoid and Nili Latu had limited chances.
There are a few injury concerns for the Steamers to come out of Super 12 - Blues props Taufa'ao Filise and Davison are battling calf and back niggles respectively, while Chiefs backup squad member Allan Bunting is nursing a broken thumb.
There were several bolters in the Lions squad, with the Mount Maunganui pair of flanker Chris Elvin and first-five Mike Delany rewarded for outstanding club form.
Delany has amassed an extraordinary 152 points from nine club games, and is one of three first-fives chosen, along with Murray Williams and Robert Moon.
Te Puke's Andy Miller has indicated he will be unavailable unless there's a serious injury crisis in that position. Another Mount player, New Zealand under-19 wing Lance MacDonald, has also been included.
With Steamers coach Vern Cotter out of action with the Crusaders until after their Super 12 campaign is over - which is likely to be after the May 28 final - assistant coaches Kevin Schuler and Andre Bell will be taking the squad until Cotter's return.
Chiefs coach Ian Foster, meanwhile, is tipping the Crusaders to go on and win the competition and believes there is much to learn from the champion South Island franchise.
"You get a pretty good indication when they finish first, and the answer is obviously they can go on and win," Foster said.
"They've shown that time and time again.
"They are a good enough team that they can nail it from round one right the way through. We've got to learn a bit of that but we've certainly learned that the levels we've got in the last five or six weeks are good enough to be there."