Bay of Plenty rugby rose to new heights last night, with the Steamers signing off their three-game pre-Air New Zealand campaign with a 44-40 victory over neighbours Waikato.

Not only was it the Steamers' third win on the trot but it was a rare first-class success over the big brother of the Chiefs franchise.

More importantly, it was another confidence booster for the side ahead of their Cup opener with Tasman in Blenheim next Thursday night.

Of big encouragement for Bay will be the fact Waikato's starting line-up included two All Blacks - Sosene Anesi and Kevin O'Neill - and Super 14 players Aled de Malmanche, Toby Lynn, Kevin O'Neill, Faifili Levave, Tom Harding, Liam Messam, Callum Bruce and Dwayne Sweeney.

During the past three weeks the Steamers have noticeably improved and because the matches have carried status, they have played with pride for representative caps.

Defence got the Steamers home in their previous outing against North Harbour, but it was attack and resolve to not quit which saw them finish off Waikato.

It was a far from perfect performance from both sides, with terrible first-up tackling contributing to the high-scoring affair.

At times, it appeared one of the new Experimental Law Variations was "tackling optional" - although the big quality possessed by the Bay this season is steel.

It's highly unlikely last year's mob, which finished 13th out of 14 teams in the Air NZ Cup, would have possessed enough fight to overcome a 20-3 deficit after just 24 minutes.

Bay of Plenty head coach Kevin Schuler certainly felt the same. "It was the nature of the win tonight that was pretty significant for us.

"We were under the hammer (but) I don't think they did much for their tries. That was pretty soft defence on our part."

The Steamers played little rugby in the first half and found themselves on the wrong end of the early scoreline. Last year that was a recipe for a hiding. However, the new version, which appears fitter and maybe even happier, didn't fold and actually came back, worked nine points clear, and closed the game out.

"You can see the fitness is there and the ability to endure has been the theme," said Schuler. "It's not perfect. We're scoring tries and giving them up but we can work on that.

"The big worry would be if we weren't scoring tries."

Waikato was expected to be the toughest of the pre-season tests and the raised arms of the Bay players on the final whistle showed they had taken the challenge seriously.

Bay were superbly led again by halfback Jamie Nutbrown. They soaked up the Waikato pressure and turned the game around as it became more open and loose.

They even dealt with disruption as centre Paula Asaeli left the field after 20 minutes with a suspected fractured cheekbone.

He was replaced by Kelly Haimona, which forced regular No 10 Mike Delany and second-five Nigel Hunt both out to centre.

Hunt was in his element in broken play, scoring two tries as he showed pace and elusiveness. He started the Bay's tryscoring with an individual bust through three tacklers before outpacing the cover.

Frontrowers Marcel Cummings-Toone and Joe Savage crossed for driving tries which signalled a competitive effort up front by the Bay pack.

Solomon King put in a strong 80min effort on the openside flank in the absence of Tanerau Latimer and Luke Braid, while lock Culum Retallick continued his development and the rise of the hungry tight five.

Waikato have moved to bolster its already-bloated playing stocks by signing talented schoolboy halfback Tawera Kerr-Barlow until the end of 2011. At 17, Kerr-Barlow is the youngest player ever to be signed by the union.