If Mike Delany has been copping grief from his teammates for the amount of press he's been getting in the past month, he'd better pack earmuffs for training this week.

Industrial-strength ones should do, enough to drown out even the dreaded clang of cowbells - after all, that's exactly what the Bay of Plenty first-five did at Baypark on Saturday.

Having kicked 22 faultless points in the 32-16 Air NZ Cup victory over Waikato, Delany was happy to deflect all praise back on his teammates, delighted to be helping maintain the Bay's unbeaten start to the season after four rounds.

"That's up there with one of the better wins we've had and the boys have worked hard for it and believed in ourselves so it's good to put it on the paddock," Delany said.

"I guess I'm happy with the way I'm playing but it's a pretty simple game-plan - the guys do their job up front, then Junior (Poluleuligaga) gives me awesome ball. I can't complain."

Neither could the 12,000 strong crowd at Baypark, who braved hideous traffic woes to see another bit of history in the making.

The Steamers collected their third competition win in a row over Waikato in a streak that goes back to 2004, while Delany's conversion of Poluleuligaga's first-half try took him past 300 points for the province.

His six penalties - three of which were from out near the 50m mark - also equalled a crowded record jointly held by the likes of Andy Miller and Glen Jackson.

There was much more to the win than a one-man show but Delany's efforts drew high praise from skipper Colin Bourke.

"Kicking the way he is, it's awesome to know we've got three points in the bag from most penalties and we can head back and start again," Bourke said.

"We can wear a lot of teams down that way and hopefully the opposition teams put a bit of pressure on themselves not to make mistakes in their own half.

"That will open holes up for us and that's all we can ask from the little fulla," the captain added.

What makes this season different to the past couple is the support Delany has around him.

Phil Burleigh has been a revelation at second-five, able to take the pressure off his pivot with superb touch-finders of his own, while Poluleuligaga had his best game since moving here at the start of the season.

The lineout and scrums were solid and the backline defence - with a couple of glaring lapses - was generally solid.

Delany pointed out the simple game plan had a lot going for it.

"We're reacting to the calls and when we get into a certain part of the field, we just know what to do. Everyone's on the same page and it just makes life easy."

Waikato headed over the Kaimai Ranges with just one win and five competition points to show for a frustrating start to their season and were desperate to improve on their 13th spot but ended the weekend dead motherless last.

They started well and had etched out a 9-6 lead late in the first half, before Steamers wing Jason Hona crashed through the Waikato midfield and Delany spied space down the blind.

His half-break was enough to put hooker John Pareanga through, with Poluleuligaga running off his shoulder to finish the move and take Bay to a 13-9 halftime lead.

Hona and Zar Lawrence then combined 5mins in the second half, bursting down the left flank, before Delany and Aporo sent Solomon King across.

Despite an immediate Waikato response - when Lawrence missed a glaring tackle on Save Tokula - the constant pressure and Delany's hot boot  were enough to seal the game, which effectively doubled as a Chiefs trial.

"We didn't want to get too emotional over the game but we probably were at the start where we were trying to take each others' heads off," Delany said.

"As soon as we got into the groove, that went out the window and we just played our own game."

The Steamers will get Tanerau Latimer back for Sunday's clash with Auckland at Eden Park - the openside is also available for the Canterbury game next week - while wing Ben Smith is also set to resume training this week.