"We take pride in our defence and it was a top team effort in that respect."
While there were no serious injuries to report Philpott said there were some sore bodies from the physical encounter which will benefit from the eight-day turn around before next Saturday night's Ranfurly Shield defence against North Harbour at McLean Park.
The Magpies opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a penalty to first five-eighth Ihaia West from 42m after the Steelers were pinged for a tackle infringement by Japanese referee Aki Aso.
Both teams were guilty of going side to side in the first quarter instead of being more direct first. The Steelers equalised in the 18th minute with a handy penalty from pivot Piers Francis after Aso ruled Magpies flanker Tom Stanley to be offside.
The Magpies almost scored from a rolling maul, one of their potent weapons to date this season, in the 21st minute. From the resulting scrum halfback Ellery Wilson fed winger Zac Guildford who crashed over but Aso with assistance from the TMO ruled a double movement.
However, he went back to a penalty for a collapsed scrum. West was on target from close range and the Magpies were ahead 6-3 after 23 minutes.
The Steelers were guilty of conceding soft turnovers and the Magpies capitalised when Hurricanes lock Mark Abbott scored his first ITM Cup try. West converted. Superb work from captain and No 8 Brendon O'Connor and centre Richard Buckman led to second five-eighth Andrew Horrell's try which West converted and the Magpies were up 20-3 after 35 minutes and at the interval.
The Magpies would have been concerned with their 14 missed tackles in the first half. Fortunately for the visitors the Steelers made six handling errors in the first spell, three more than the Magpies.
The Magpies enjoyed 52 per cent of possession in the first half but only 34 per cent of the territory. O'Connor and co were no doubt grateful the Steelers lacked the necessary patience in the first half.
Francis opened the scoring in the second half with a 42nd minute penalty from 40m after prop Brendon Edmonds was ruled to be offside. West replied with a 44m effort two minutes later to maintain his 100 per cent success rate and put the visitors ahead 23-6.
The Steelers were gone when Guildford scored a 47th minute intercept try. West converted from the sideline.
Guildford was unlucky not to have a second try two minutes later when hooker Ash Dixon obstructed a defender in the build-up. Luck was on Guildford's side when he escaped a penalty for a dangerous tackle in the 56th minute.
Busy Steelers No 8 Maama Vaipulu was rewarded for his efforts with the hosts sole try in the 69th minute.
A clever dab from substitute halfback Chris Eaton led to Magpies winger Shannan Chase scoring the bonus point try in the 76th minute. All Black fullback Israel Dagg missed his conversion attempt from wide out.
Dagg, who played the entire match and All Black prop Ben Franks, who played 63 minutes, did nothing which would force the All Black selector to wipe their names from the World Cup squad which will be read out tomorrow.
Player-of-the-match O'Connor was thrilled with the victory at what he described as a tough away venue. He agreed his troops were guilty of going side to side too often early in the match.
"But when the forwards opted to be more direct and got some go forward we were able to put the backs into space and score some good tries which was pleasing to see."
Steelers captain and blindside flanker Jimmy Tupou said the result was disappointing.
