Hawke's Bay opened their campaign with a 24-16 home win over Southland.
Bay of Plenty head coach Clayton McMillan says losing impetus cost his side dearly against Northland.
"There is a little old thing called momentum and a shift in momentum for us came through the lack of possession, which meant that we spent a large portion of the half in our own red zone," he said.
"Under some pressure our scrum and lineout got a little creaky. We gave some penalties away in quick succession and a couple of turnovers and in a short 15-minute period they scored three tries.
"Our challenge is we need to rectify the areas that culminated in putting us in that position."
Veteran first-five Mike Delany, 35, back in the Bay jersey after seven years playing overseas, says they need to be more clinical against Hawke's Bay.
"For us we had too many compounding errors and too many penalties that hurt us. Our execution at set-piece did not go well so we were unable to exit out of our half.
"It was pretty hard to get over the loss on the weekend but the boys have come in today and are really positive and can't wait to get out there on Friday.
"If we play as we know we can and we execute and stick to the game plan then we will get a good result on Friday night."
Coach McMillan, who was a stalwart of the Whakarewarewa club and played 113 games for the Steamers, is hoping his home town will get right behind the Steamers tomorrow.
"We've got three games there and it would be fantastic if the public come out and support us en masse. It is a fantastic stadium and a great pitch and we know the players love playing there.
"We are hopeful of a good crowd but we know we have an important part to play in that too as people want to go along and support winning teams.
"Our challenge is to provide that so people feel motivated to come along and see what great rugby the team is playing."
