Steamers in battle to avoid drop

Bay of Plenty

1  Greg Pleasants-Tate 2 John Pareanga 3 Tristan Moran 4 Dan Goodwin 5 Leon Power 6 Tanerau Latimer (captain) 7 Luke Braid 8 Carl Axtens 9 Lewis Hancock 10 Chris Noakes 11 Jack Wilson 12 Phil Burleigh 13 Kenny Lynn 14 Lelia Masaga 15 Lance MacDonald. Reserves: 16 Nathan Harris, 17 Mike Kainga, 18 Keepa Mewett, 19 Jesse Acton, 20 Nick McCashin, 21 Simon Rolleston, 22 Mafi Kefu.

The goal for the Bay of Plenty Steamers has switched from making the ITM Premiership semifinals to ensuring they do not get relegated to the Championship.

Their last-game loss to Wellington on Tuesday night has seen the Steamers slip into a three-way battle with Waikato and Hawke's Bay to avoid the dreaded drop.

Tomorrow afternoon's home game against Northland at Baypark Stadium is now an absolute must-win, and the Taniwha will not be easy to knock over, as Southland found out when they were lucky to beat them in Invercargill on Wednesday night.

Injuries sustained in the Wellington game have ruled out prop Josh Hohneck and lock Culum Retallick for tomorrow's clash.

Versatile prop Tristan Moran switches from loosehead to tighthead, with Greg Pleasants-Tate starting at loosehead prop. Former Northland regular Dan Goodwin will face up to his old team in Retallick's jersey, after starting at blindside against Wellington.

Jack Wilson starts on the left wing to give the battered Mafi Kefu a rest, although the Aussie warrior continues to train hard and front-up at game time, despite a painful wrist injury.

Halfback Lewis Hancock impressed with his darting runs against Wellington and will again have Chris Noakes outside him, while the midfield pairing of Phil Burleigh and Kenny Lynn will need to be at their best defensively against the powerful Northland back division including Rene Ranger, Dan Caprice and Mateo Malupo.

The Steamers bench has a raw, inexperienced look about it but is a chance for some of the Western Bay's best club performers to make another step up.

Mike Kainga has played just five games, Simon Rolleston and Nathan Harris three each and Jesse Acton and Keepa Mewett just two games.

Northland's first-five, Ash Moeke, has been a match winner with his boot this season and after being kicked off Baypark by Lima Sopoaga on Tuesday night, the Steamers will have to curb their amount of penalties.

Improving their goalkicking statistics would help greatly, too.

Injured lock Retallick, who is out of action for six to eight weeks with ligament damage to his foot, says the Steamers are well aware of Northland's ability to beat anyone on their day.

"The Taniwha are going pretty well this year," he said. "The last couple of weeks they have probably dropped off the pace slightly like we have, so hopefully we can beat them here on Sunday.

"They looked sharp last game against Southland, and ex-Taniwha boy DG (Dan Goodwin) will be fired up to get one over his old mates. They work together pretty well as a pack actually, which is one of their strong points, and in the backs they have a couple of game-breakers who we need to take control of."

Retallick believes the Steamers have played better than their position on the table would indicate.

"Its been very frustrating because our whole season, we have dominated everywhere else but on the scoreboard. It is just those little individual errors, like missing a cleanout or not taking three points or missing a tackle, that are really costing us.

"Our attack has been really, really good in the last two weeks but it is our defence, with one-on-one tackles missed. Sometimes we get into really good positions and get massively behind the gain line, then we miss a cleanout or our passing is not too good and that costs us.

"We are just trying to get those little things out of our game, and if we do, we are there."

Kickoff is at 4.35pm with the Bay Development side taking on North Harbour in the curtain raiser at 2pm.

In last night's ITM Cup match, Auckland beat Counties-Manukau 22-18 at Eden Park.