The city rocked while the Steamers were rolled - but leave it to big prop James McGougan to provide some perspective on their trip to Christchurch.

"At least this takes the focus off our performance last night," he quipped, as he and his earthquake-evacuated teammates huddled in the team hotel early this morning.

The Bay of Plenty team were shaken awake by the massive 7.1 tremor which hit the Garden City at 4.35am, just hours after their 28-9 loss to Canterbury at AMI Stadium.

All members of the team and management were uninjured, although their travel plans back home were wrecked with the airport closed.

McGougan was right - the quake threw last night's fetid performance from the Steamers into sharp perspective. It was an ugly loss, but it was just a game after all.

Who cares about a back-pedalling scrum and sloppy handling when all the players wanted was to get back home safely?

The Christchurch-raised players in the side - the likes of hooker Dan Perrin and second-five Phil Burleigh - were more immediately concerned with finding out how friends and family in the city were faring.

Back on the field. Bay of Plenty's next three weeks shape as the most crucial part of their season.

Ahead are three home matches, beginning with Manawatu at Baypark on Thursday. With an already short turnaround, they have to get home and refocus as quickly as possible.

"We're not far away but we've got to stop using that as an excuse after six games," flanker Tanerau Latimer said. "The day has to come when we play well for 80mins and thoroughly dominate an opposition team."

Sadly, that didn't come last night as Bay of Plenty had their fourth loss in six rounds in the ITM Cup.

Winless in Christchurch since 1975, Bay of Plenty's stuttering attack, patchy defence and rapidly back-pedalling pack did nothing to help remedy that statistic.

In a mistake-ridden game, the Steamers couldn't find anywhere near enough fluency to derail the Canterbury machine, even one over-hyped up by the presence of league star Sonny Bill Williams.

"We put a huge emphasis on our set-piece work during the week but our scrum just couldn't match theirs," Steamers captain Colin Bourke admitted. "They've got a great unit and we were behind the eight-ball from the start. We just couldn't get anything going."

Bourke was adamant he'd scored just after halftime after a neat dab from Mike Delany and a bust by Luke Braid but the video evidence was inconclusive. Lelia Masaga also had a try ruled out after an hour, with Williams bundling him out in the corner.

Canterbury had the mortgage on the other game highlights, particularly centre Robbie Fruean skipping past Ben Smith's flailing tackle for a good try with 10 minutes remaining but there was little respite from a spate of stoppages and mistakes.

Bay of Plenty had a strong southerly at their backs in a scrappy first half but their only point-scoring chances came from three Mike Delany penalties.

They seemed to kick for possession and wait for mistakes, but even when they came, the visitors lacked the inventiveness to take advantage.

Canterbury's handling was also poor and only a smart tap-penalty try from No 8 Nasi Manu separated the scores at the break.

Up front, the Canterbury front-row of Wyatt Crockett, Corey Flynn and Owen Franks tore into the Bay pack, grabbing two tightheads and making life miserable.

The home side's tight-five displayed an awesome second shunt, like a bulldozer down-shifting into low-ratio. It was a fierce display of perfect unity and the torque that creates.

The result was a far cry from Bay of Plenty's 19-17 win over the red and blacks last year, although that match had an impact last night.

"The boys were still hurting from that narrow loss last year so we were pretty determined to make amends," Canterbury captain George Whitelock said.

Now that determination has to revert back to the Steamers. They're nearly halfway through a crucial season and the time has come to make their own amends.