The Bay of Plenty Steamers put on a show for their fans tonight, with their final home game played before they head to Invercargill to play Southland on Sunday, August 28.

The game was a sizeable clash between the Steamers and ITM Cup premiership front-runners Canterbury, with the Steamers desperate to escape their recent string of loses after a promising start.

The score at half-time was 29-3, with the Steamers dominating. But with the final score of 35-31 it turned out to be a close game.

The Steamers have recovered from their losing streak to put themselves in good stead for Sunday's game.

SunLive was at the game, and caught up with some of the action on the field as well as support in the stands.


Connor, 11 and Jake Frieswyk, 13 and Jake May, 13 from Tauranga at the game tonight.

Steamers fans from Katikati, Jared Snowball-Boyes, 9, Sebastian Drewery, 8 and Desmond Vilou, 9 cheer loud for the Steamers.

Gary Bishell takes grandsons Bailey and Matthew Cotton, both 10 from London to see the Steamers play.

Steamers fans T-Man, Scotty, Dude and Charlie get dressed up to show their support.

Rebecca-May Rosser, Hayley McNeil, Amy Russell and Melissa McNeil have a girls night out at the rugby.

Hayden Wood and Jason Massey travelled from Rotorua to cheer on their team.

Steamy's dance performance was popular with the crowd.

Welcome Bay's U7 Rippa Rugby team having fun at the game.

Jarn Mita, 12, Tom Cleary, 12, Mafi Fifita, 11 and Emilio Bunou, 11 from Katikati.