The Bay of Plenty Steamers are ready to hit the reset button on their Mitre 10 Cup season with the tough crossover matches against Premiership teams out of the way, and roll their sleeves up for the job of getting back into the Championship division playoff frame.

The sit fifth on the table going into their crucial clash with top dogs Waikato tonight in Rotorua, and they're looking forward to the challenge of getting back in the groove against their next door neighbours, says assistant coach Rodney Gibbs.

'We've planned the season with a cross roads. We've played the four Premiership teams and we've got Championship teams for the rest of the season, five more games. So the challenge is you need to win those games to be at the business end of the season.

'We understand that, the boys know that.

'And it's a pretty exciting time. We haven't got the momentum at the moment but we know it's only one game away to change that and then you're back on the horse.”

There's a sense the real season begins now for the Steamers, Rodney says.

'If anyone said at the start of the season you'll pick up two Premiership wins we'd take that. And we played pretty well against Canterbury.

'We need to move forward and be really excited about the challenges ahead.”

Following those two wins over top tier teams Taranaki and Counties Manukau life got tougher with a narrow loss to Canterbury, a single-point bounce of the ball stumble against Hawkes Bay, and last week's 32-20 defeat at North Harbour where they just couldn't get out of third gear, which Rodney says had a lot to do with the tough schedule they've faced.

'We've had four premiership teams now and they're pretty physical games. There's some big lads running around and it's probably taken its toll. We never really got our game going.

'We defended a lot and that probably affected our attack a bit. We never really got any momentum going. In the first half we held onto the ball well for one period of time and scored the try but we couldn't do that consistently. Our own errors let us down a little bit.”

Adding to the challenge of resetting the season at this halfway stage for the Steamers is that they'll be doing it without veteran first five-eight Mike Delany, who damaged a pectoral muscle after scoring his side's first try against North Harbour and exited the game at halftime. But Rodney says his replacement Jason Robertson is ready to step up.

'We're confident in his abilities, and he's had a good season. He's had plenty of time to settle into the structures and he'll do a great job.”

With a season in Japan, Mitre 10 Cup experience with Waikato and a top season guiding Te Puke Sports to the Baywide club title this year he's helping bring fresh impetus to the Steamers' effort.

'He's a good rugby player,” Rodney says. 'He's going to bring a different dimension to our game so that's really positive.”

Among other key changes to the lineup for tonight's game big Canadian international Tyler Ardron moves from lock to take the injured Hoani Matenga's place at number 8 and will take over captaincy of the side, while all-action openside Mitch Karpik moves to the bench nursing a slight hand knock and will be replaced in the seven jersey by Hugh Blake.

Last week's debutante lock Nick Ross keeps his spot after putting in an impressive shift against North Harbour, and he'll be joined in the second row by Kane Le'aupepe.

Richard Judd regains the starting halfback possie in his blazer game ahead of Luke Campbell, which is about getting the best out of them both, says Rodney.

'We're really confident in both of them. It's really more the balance that works for us. Luke offers us so much off the bench, his energy and speed. Juddy's very good in the close quarters areas and he's defensively very strong.

'They offer different qualities – Luke's kicking game is really good, he kicked well last week, and we didn't probably get the rewards out of that we should have.”

Out wide Bailey Simonsson replaces right wing Fa'asiu Fuatai, who drops to the bench, and Matt Garland returns on the left, with Liam Steel returning to his more accustomed centre position.

The return of Kaleb Trask, fresh from Bay of Plenty's memorable Jock Hobbs Memorial national under 19 tournament win, is the other change in the backline. He replaces fullback Chase Tiatia who is out for a few weeks with a knee injury.

They're under no illusions over the size of tonight's task to secure priceless competition points and retain the Chiefs Country Cup against Waikato, who have three handsome wins in their last three starts, says Rodney.

'They've got momentum, they've been playing really well. The style of rugby they're playing is pretty exciting so we've got a heck of a challenge to put a halt to that and turn the whole thing around.

'Putting things like the Chiefs Cup on the line – we know if we win this one then it's ours for the year so they're great challenges to have and determine what your team's about.”

The match at Rotorua International Stadium tonight kicks off at 7:35, following the Bay of Plenty Volcanix playing Taranaki in their Farah Palmer Cup encounter kicking off at 5:05.

Bay of Plenty Steamers (appearances in brackets):

1. Solomona Sakalia (38), 2. Tom Crozier (3), 3. Ross Geldenhuys (5), 4. Nick Ross (1), 5. Kane Le'aupepe (3), 6. Zane Kapeli (2), 7. Hugh Blake (23), 8. Tyler Ardron (10) ©, 9. Richard Judd (14), 10. Jason Robertson (3), 11. Matthew Garland (6), 12. Terrence Hepetema (24), 13. Liam Steel (9), 14. Bailey Simonsson (2), 15. Kaleb Trask (2)

Reserves:

16. Angus MacDonald (4), 17. James Lay (15), 18. Jeff Thwaites (26), 19. Baden Wardlaw (3), 20. Mitch Karpik (11), 21. AJ Lafaele-Mua (3), 22. Luke Campbell (21), 23. Fa'asiu Fuatai (5)