It was uglier than a hatful of spiders, as the saying goes, but Bay of Plenty's 24-13 victory over Tasman last night could prove a double whammy.

Not only did they fend off the Air NZ Cup's fourth-best team, they did so with a clutch of rookies making significant impacts.

Flanker Zac Hohneck, fullback Toby Arnold and centre Wayne Hughson all came through with solid games, giving much-needed depth at a crucial time in a gruelling season.

The Steamers now have a four-day break before building up for next week's match against Otago, followed by four more matches until the semifinals against Hawke's Bay, North Harbour, Manawatu and Taranaki.

"It will be good to get away from rugby for a few days and come back and get stuck into the second half of the competition," Steamers captain Colin Bourke said. "This will be the harder side of the tournament because it's easy getting up for the likes of Canterbury and Wellington but we have to lift for Manawatu and Taranaki because we're not underdogs anymore. We're at the top and we've got to play like that."

Bourke had an eventful night. He was one of three players sinbinned by Australian referee Nathan Pearce but regathered himself to score the match-winning try with four minutes left.

Five days ago, Pearce was controlling Sydney club rugby under the former ELV experimental rules and the 33-year-old admitted it took a lot of adjusting to step cold into New Zealand provincial rugby on a muggy Thursday night.

The Baypark crowd struggled to adjust to his interpretations, especially when he binned Luke Braid for a dangerous tackle, Bourke for punching and Tasman halfback Kahn Fotuali'i for a spear tackle all within 10 minutes of halftime.

Bourke admitted his side needed an urgent halftime rethink on their tactics.

"We did struggle with the interpretation. Rucks are a big part of our game and we were under the pump at halftime, getting penalised heavily, so we decided to leave the ball alone, back our defence and make our turnovers on big tackles."

It worked. Leading 7-3 at the break, following Phil Burleigh's sumptuous finishing of a Jason Hona break, Tasman took the lead after 46 minutes when lock Alex Ainley crossed after an 80m movement stemming from a Bay of Plenty surge.

But after that, the Steamers strangled Tasman out of the game, mauling Junior Poluleuligaga over with 20 minutes left, then tenaciously defending until Bourke's winning charge-down.

"I was trying to have a rest by doing a fake charge-down but it came off so I had to chase it! I didn't think I'd get to the line but I was pretty happy because we really needed it at that stage of the game."

Bourke's flurry of punches after being spear-tackled might face further judicial review, though Braid's innocuous "no-arms" tackle should have drawn little more than a penalty.

The Steamers missed another bonus point but their backline looked infinitely more penetrative than it has done, particularly with Arnold hitting the line. He made several slick breaks and linked well with Hona, with both taking their share of testing bombs.

Burleigh's wisdom in the midfield helped tie the game down, kicking well and supporting a strangely off-colour Mike Delany, who missed three of his seven shots at goal on a benign evening.

His nine-point haul was still good enough to take him past the century for the season, leaving him on 108 after seven games.