He's on the fringes of the Commonwealth Games but Solomon King will be right in the thick of the action tomorrow night.

The Bay of Plenty blindside flanker has been elevated to the starting XV for tomorrow night's ITM Cup match against Hawke's Bay in Napier.

King, who has been named as a non-travelling reserve for the New Zealand sevens team heading to the October games in New Delhi, replaces Luke Braid, with Braid dropping back into the reserves.

Steamers coach Sean Horan has also bracketed prop James McGougan, who was ruled out of last year's clash with Hawke's Bay in Rotorua and hasn't started a provincial match since.

McGougan's chronic back problems appear to be on the wane and he saw action off the bench against Waikato in Hamilton last week. Bay of Plenty lost the season-opener 13-10.

A call on McGougan's fitness will be made today when the team arrives in Napier, with Joe Savage the other contender to start.

Otherwise, the side is unchanged from the Hamilton match, which saw a spluttering opener from the Steamers.

Bay of Plenty were the only unbeaten side in pre-season, including handing Hawke's Bay a 44-34 drubbing in Napier, but couldn't translate that to the competition proper.

Hawke's Bay started their campaign with a 23-all draw with Canterbury last week and will be favoured to continue their recent competition dominance of Bay of Plenty.

Magpies coach Peter Russell has made two changes to his starting line-up, however, bringing 126-game veteran Michael Johnson into blindside and replacing injured first-five Daniel Kirkpatrick with Andrew Horrell.

Kirkpatrick was forced to leave the field against Canterbury with his second head knock in three weeks. The New Zealand Rugby Union advised the Magpies to rest Kirkpatrick this week. 

Meanwhile, All Black Israel Dagg hasn't been released for the match after being replaced on the national side's reserves bench for Saturday night's test against the Wallabies in Christchurch, but former Kangaroo league player Luke Rooney will start at fullback.

Bay of Plenty:
Toby Arnold, Lance MacDonald, Brett Mather, Grant McQuoid, Jason Hona, Dan Waenga, Taniela Moa, Colin Bourke (capt), Tanerau Latimer, Solomon King, Culum Retallick, Luke Andrews, Josh Hohneck, John Pareanga, Joe Savage/James McGougan.
Reserves: Simon Chisholm, McGougan/Savage, Aidan Kuka, Luke Braid, Chad Tuoro, Phil Burleigh, Lelia Masaga.