With such a healthy nucleus of experienced heads around the Steamers outfit this year it came a bit out of the blue to Liam Polwart when he was tapped on the shoulder and asked to take on the captaincy.

'To be honest it was a little unexpected,” says the Chiefs and former New Zealand under 20s hooker, who made his Bay of Plenty debut in the 2016 season, 'but I've taken it as a huge honour. I'm real stoked to get it and looking forward to the season and seeing where the boys can go.”

The blue and golds open their Mitre 10 Cup crusade tomorrow night with one of the bigger challenges of the campaign – a Rotorua rumble against Premiership highflyers and Chiefs in-house rival Taranaki - and Liam's happy to have such a strong leadership group around him. He's had a prior taste of captaincy in the Auckland under 19s before moving to the Bay, but this is his debut at senior level in the role.

'We've got plenty of experience, we've got Mike Delany, and Tanerau Latimer - those two are vice captains,” he says, 'and there's plenty of other boys in our leadership group so it looks strong.”

He's in no doubt what he feels his troops will need from him as captain.

'Just clarity I think. I like to lead more just with actions, and obviously speak when I need to. It's my first year skippering the team so for me it's saying the right thing at the right time, and seeing where the boys are flat or where someone needs a few words. But I like to lead with actions and try and add a bit of the experience that I've got and help out where I can.”

Spurring the team on is the memory of falling just short last year in a dramatic extra time final defeat to Wellington which cost the Championship title, and promotion to the Premiership. Liam says the team is ready to take it up a level this time around.

'Yeah, 100 percent. We don't like to talk about last year too much but we obviously know we came a long way from the start of last season and to fall short there at the last hurdle it did hurt a lot, us boys that were here last year know what that feels like. So we're all working really hard to get out of the championship comp into the premiership, and now we know what it takes to do it so I think we're ready.”

The team he will lead onto the Rotorua International Stadium will have a highly familiar look about it to Steamers fans, with 12 of the starting 15 having played a part in last year's campaign.

'There's a few new faces, there's a few 19-20 year olds but there's a lot of boys back from last year and a few of us who've been around two or three years that are starting to create a good core,” says Liam.

'So we're getting some good consistency and the coaching staff's been the same for a couple of years so it's looking promising.”

The Steamers at training yesterday at Arataki Park

Three of the run-on fifteen - lock Kane Le'aupepe, number 8 Hoani Matenga, and wing Fa'asui Fuatai – are new to the Steamers setup but have all earned their places with explosive club seasons, for Te Puke Sports, Rangiuru and Rangataua respectively.

Around them will be a plethora of Super Rugby, Mitre 10 Cup and international experience.

Le'aupepe will have Canadian international Tyler Ardron beside him in the second row, and Jeff Thwaites, James Lay and skipper Polwart complete the tight five, while Matenga's compadres in the loose forward trio are Scottish international Hugh Blake and Chiefs tearaway Mitch Karpik.

Right winger Fuatai will have Blues midfielder Terrence Hepetema and 26-cap Steamer Chase Tiatia for company in the outside backs, alongside highly promising ex-Auckland centre Liam Steel whose debut season for the Bay last year was cruelly cut short by injury.

Matt Garland, who made a huge impact in the Steamers' 16-14 loss to Auckland in their final preseason hitout last week in Katikati, fills the left wing position.

They all complete a backline that will be marshalled by Mike Delany, playing his 73^rd match in the blue and gold, and Richard Judd, who edged out Luke Campbell for the starting halfback jersey.

Skipper Polwart is well aware of the scale of the task against last year's beaten Premiership semifinalists Taranaki, but sees an opportunity for his team to start the season with a bang.

'Naki's a top side,” he says. 'They're in the Premiership comp and they've got a lot of Super Rugby players back playing for them. It's going to be a big game for us but we're definitely up for it. We're looking forward to the challenge and there's no reason why we can't beat them.

'It's a home game so that's special for the boys and a few debut boys as well which is special for them. So I'm sure everyone's going to get up and hopefully we'll have a good crowd behind us too for the first home game.”

He'll be delighted to be the first captain to get his hands on the brand new Chiefs Country Cup too, he says.

'Yeah absolutely. I think it's an awesome concept they've come up with. It's cool to have a bit of inter-club competition - it creates even more rivalry than we already have.

'We had a look at the cup today and I wouldn't mind lifting that above my head after the game.”

Looking at the Championship as a whole, Liam is reluctant to acknowledge last year's relegated side Waikato as the team to beat for the title. They're all dangerous, he says.

'We can't take anyone for granted.

'We'll be playing every team as if it's the best team in the comp and we'll never let our guard down.”

Bay of Plenty Steamers v Taranaki, Rotorua International Stadium, Saturday 7:35 kickoff.

(Steamers caps in brackets):

1 James Lay (10), 2 Liam Polwart (14)** (C), 3 Jeff Thwaites (21), 4 Kane Le'aupepe*, 5 Tyler Ardron (7), 6 Hugh Blake (20), 7 Mitch Karpik (6), 8 Hoani Matenga*, 9 Richard Judd (10), 10 Mike Delany (72) (VC), 11 Mathew Garland (3), 12 Terrence Hepetema (19), 13 Liam Steel (4), 14 Fa'asiu Fuatai*, 15 Chase Tiatia (26)

Reserves: 16 Valentine Meachen*, 17 Solomona Sakalia (33), 18 Ross Geldenhyus*, 19 Aaron Carroll*, 20 Ajay Mua (1), 21 Luke Campbell (16), 22 Kaleb Trask*, 23 Trael Joass*

* Debut

** Blazer game – 15 caps