Bay of Plenty banked five Air New Zealand Cup competition points but showed they still have plenty of work to do after beating Otago 31-20 at Baypark last night.

The home side ran in five tries, three in a strong first half, but let Otago back into the round six clash, after a skittery second spell that saw the visitors close to just four points at one stage.

Forwards and backs combined to give halfback Jamie Nutbrown a dream ride in the first half, which saw the Steamers ahead 24-0.

However, the continuity was missing in the second spell as players got isolated with the ball, Otago picked up turnovers, scored two converted tries and grafted some penalties - including one 54 metre effort to first-five Chris Noakes.

Nutbrown's dream ride disappeared, while Otago did their best to take the game.

It took a Mike Delany dash through the Otago defence, following a James McGougan drive from a quick free kick, to get the Steamers out of danger in front of about 12,000 fans.

It was easily the biggest crowd at Baypark since the 2004 Ranfurly Shield season.

The positive from the match was last round's hammering to Wellington is now consigned to the past and a victory over a Super 14 base side is always a rare honour for provincial unions like Bay of Plenty.

The win keeps the Steamers in the top three of the competition, behind unbeaten Wellington and Canterbury respectively.

More importantly it has them surging towards a quarterfinal with five wins from their six starts and eight from nine including the three first-class pre-season victories.

Head coach Kevin Schuler was in a mixed mood following the game which signalled the end of Nutbrown's career in the Bay.

"I'm stoked we got the win and I'm stoked we came back and closed it out but we've still got some discipline issues and maybe lost focus," he said.

"I think we didn't show enough patience and we looked like we were trying to do two different things.

"If we clear that up it'll be different, but we survived and we're stoked to get five points against Otago which keeps us ahead of the pack."

Otago contributed to their demise with some shocking handling in the first spell. The combination between halfback Toby Morland and Noakes didn't click, while the Steamers forwards attacked in numbers and the loose forwards gained the advantage in turnovers.

Schuler said that was an area they had targeted after being out muscled by Wellington.

Tanerau Latimer was back to his pilfering best around the fringes and with some strong head-on tackling.

The Steamers were quickly into their work, with Latimer opening the scoring following some short-side interplay among the forwards as the big crowd was still streaming in.

Delany added the conversion and then a penalty a few moments later to start his perfect night with the boot with five from five, moving him past 50 points for the competition.

Lock Culum Retallick was rewarded for another solid performance as he got a pass from Nutbrown following a free kick and drove through three defenders to score.

Nutbrown had his moment when he dived over to finish off a 65-metre move Delany started inside his own half. The No 10 busted the line, drew the fullback and fed Colin Bourke on the outside who turned it in for Nutbrown to score under the posts and give the Steamers a 24-0 lead at the break.

The lead was too much for Otago to peg back but they never stopped trying.

Bay of Plenty 31 (Tanerau Latimer, Culum Retallick, Jamie Nutbrown, Mike Delany tries; Delany 4 con, pen) Otago 20 (Craig Newby, Tom Donnelly tries; Chris Noakes 2 con, 2 pen). HT: 24-0.