With the pair on the sidelines, Auckland rattled on 12 points, wore the Bay side down and eventually ran out 45-27 winners.
Things had all started so promisingly. Mike Delany's shift to first-five paid immediate dividends for the visitors, as he and second-five Cory Aporo attacked the Auckland midfield mercilessly.
Aporo scored with his second strong run after just four minutes, Delany kicked a couple of penalties and Smith laid on a sweet ball for Latu from a 5m scrum as Bay took a 20-6 lead with the wind.
Auckland wing David Smith crossed for a blinder after half an hour, before Bay's chances were well and truly buried just before the break.
Bay's tactics of slowing the ball down in the rucks came under heavy attention from referee Steve Walsh, Smith had earlier put in a careless high shot on Auckland first-five Isa Nacewa, and when Latu put a big hit on prop Chris Head, Walsh reached for his pocket.
``He was worried about us playing the ball on the ground and I probably didn't give him much option but it wasn't high,'' Latu said. ``I made it look bad because I jumped up at him but I just felt we had to muscle up and fight fire with fire.''
Auckland hooker Derren Whitcombe had seconds earlier stomped shamelessly on Latu in a ruck, which could see some judicial attention, but Latu's response did his side no favours.
When Smith reactively threw his arm out again a minute into the second spell and delivered another ugly-looking high shot on Derren Witcombe, he was soon trudging over to join his loose-forward comrade.
The effect was three-fold.
With two players out of the pack, Auckland naturally attacked the Bay forwards. The effort of defending for 10 minutes with 13 players drained the visitors' energy levels and the Steamers couldn't attack the vulnerable Auckland midfield without loose-forward support.
Auckland halfback Steve Devine scored twice as did Brent Ward, while Smith also added a second. The 19-year-old Samoan was superb on his feet, fast and able to step away from tacklers, though Delany put a blinder try-saving hit on him in the 63rd minute.
Auckland scored 39 points in between Bay's initial onslaught and their late Aporo consolation, mainly through individual brilliance rather than any great scheming.
``It seems like we're putting good first-half performances together but we've got to work hard on our second half,'' Latu said.
``We can't afford to give good teams like Auckland a chance. We're just pretty disappointed.
``We know we can do better than that which is the most disappointing thing.''

With thanks to the Bay of Plenty Times