Bay of Plenty Steamers assistant coach David Hill says his team are on the same page and won't hold anything back in their must-win Mitre 10 Cup encounter with Otago tonight in Dunedin.

Sitting fifth on the table with a 10 point gap to the top four they simply need to take the four points, and preferably add a bonus point, to stay in with any realistic chance of making the Championship division semifinals and keeping alive their dream of promotion to the Premiership.

'We're not going to die wondering, that's for sure,” David says.

'We've got a pretty clear plan in place and the players are definitely on board with that. We're going to play to our strengths as much as we can, and we're fully aware of the opposition as well and what they bring, so we'll be doing our best to stem their flow and control the ball as much as possible.”

The opposition, Otago, are in a good space at the moment having just beaten Premiership front-runners Auckland on the weekend. The Steamers, on the other hand, have been going through tough times with five straight losses, but David says they're bearing up.

'It's been challenging times but the mood's been pretty good. We came down (to Dunedin) yesterday, a day early, and managed to get some good trainings in so we're pretty happy.”

They don't fall back on the injury crisis they're suffering from as an excuse for their two win-five loss record, and they just have to battle through it, he says, but there's no denying it's had its effect.

'Yeah it has, it's impossible to avoid the facts I suppose.

'Last year we didn't have to deal with too many injuries and setbacks and we managed to have some stability in our team. But that's the way it goes – sometimes they come in clumps of five or six, and we've definitely had our five or six, with some quite key players. And that's affected us but we just deal with it and move on.

'There's not a lot of teams around that have lost their starting number 10 or their playmaker or their captain, and managed to deal with that too well. And we've managed to lose two of them, so it's been pretty tough work.”

Bay under 19 and New Zealand under 20 star Kaleb Trask, who has mainly operated from fullback for the Steamers, will step up to the all-important first five-eight position with both Mike Delany and Jason Robertson breaking down in recent weeks.

'Mike and Jason's injuries have been pretty disappointing for them personally and have had an impact on the team but we're confident Kaleb can do the job for us so we're putting all our time and effort into him.

'He'll be handed some responsibilities to drive our attack and drive our game and he does that quite naturally so we're expecting him to go out and do the job.”

He will pair up with Luke Campbell as the starting halfback combination as Richard Judd, who has shouldered much of the burden in the number nine shirt, takes a turn starting a match on the bench.

Terrence Hepetema's return from injury to the second five-eight spot is the other significant backline change, with Chase Tiatia slotting back into his customary fullback position.

James Lay coming in as the front row replacement for the injured Solomona Sakalia is the only change in the starting forward pack.

One significant change on the bench is the arrival of midfield back Lalomilo Lalomilo, who had a dynamic campaign in the Jock Hobbs Memorial national under 19s tournament alongside Trask.

As with any team finding their backs to the wall a lack of confidence has not helped the Steamers turn the corner, but David says they have been looking for ways to deal with that.

'As most teams are successful their brand of rugby grows as they get more confidence, and we haven't quite hit that patch where we've had a long period on attack or some of our stuff has come off. So it's probably reflective of how our season's gone in terms of injuries and performance.

'When you don't have the wins you're looking for a few answers here and there and that's natural.

'We probably get our confidence from how we prepare, we've done that over a number of weeks really well and just haven't been able to put it on the park. It's a combination of all sorts of factors, not just one in particular.”

That's all in the past now, says David, and they're ready to go out and do what it takes tonight.

'We're very motivated. It's pretty clear how big a challenge we have, and we're pretty motivated to go and put a performance we can be proud of tonight. It's pretty obvious that we need to go out and win and get a bonus point, that's the thing we're focusing on.”

Bay of Plenty Steamers lineup to take on Otago tonight at Forsyth Barr Stadium Dunedin, kickoff 7:35 (appearances in brackets):

1. James Lay (17), 2. Tom Crozier (5), 3. Ross Geldenhuys (7), 4. Baden Wardlaw (5), 5. Kane Le'aupepe (5), 6. Tyler Ardron (12) (c), 7. Mitch Karpik (13), 8. Hoani Matenga (6), 9. Luke Campbell (23), 10. Kaleb Trask (4), 11. Fa'asiu Fuatai (7), 12. Terrence Hepetema (25), 13. Liam Steel (11), 14. Bailey Simonsson (4), 15. Chase Tiatia (32)

Reserves:

16. Angus McDonald (5), 17. Josh Davey*, 18. Jeff Thwaites (28), 19. Aaron Carroll (6), 20. Zane Kapeli (4), 21. Richard Judd (16), 22. Reece MacDonald*, 23. Lalomilo Lalomilo*

* Players on debut.