Last night they were beaten by Auckland 41-3 with the visitors running in four tries - three in the last 12 minutes as the might of a fully professional outfit pushed through at Tauranga's Blue Chip Stadium.

In a match that never rose to great heights, a handful of classy attacking moments was enough for the Aucklanders to claim a bonus-point win.

They scored four tries - the first to returning All Blacks lock Ali Williams - while fullback Brent Ward landed 17 points with a six-from-six goalkicking return.

Bay of Plenty could manage just a solitary penalty to first-five Murray Williams as they went tryless for the second week, following their 3-34 loss to Canterbury.

The Steamers were left pointless and frustrated after 160 minutes of the 2007 season in which they've had a nightmare opening draw with two losses to two of the competition favourites.

That situation is made worse with the Bay losing captain Ben Castle to a serious shoulder injury (suspected AC joint) in just the 11th minute. Tanerau Latimer took Castle's leadership role while Te Puke's Matt Wallis, last from the bench last week, was the first on this week.

Steamers second-five Rena Schuster agreed the next outing against Northland in Rotorua on Thursday night is shaping as a desperate situation. "It's probably a good thing if we do consider it desperation now. It makes you work harder," said the midfielder, who went within centimetres of scoring the Steamers' first try of the competition last night. He was dragged down by desperate Auckland cover in one of the Bay's rare try-threatening raids.

The Bay had more ball and showed a little bit more endeavour on attack than the previous week but Schuster, who attacked the Auckland defensive line with some nice angled running, admitted some frustration crept in during the game.

Last night was much of the same story as in the Bay's opening match against Canterbury. They competed for the first half but lost their way, once again, about the 60th minute mark.

On the positive side, the lineouts were better but the scrum was affected by the loss of Castle and often went into reverse.

Auckland had its big guns and most of them fired for the 80 minutes with past and current All Blacks in imposing form, making coach Pat Lam a happy man.

"It was a big step up from last week. We were much better in the collisions," he said.

Super 14 players Ali Williams, Isa Nacewa, Lachie Munro scored the tries.

Bay of Plenty's sole response was a Murray Williams' penalty, while two others were missed, once each by Williams and Mike Delany.

World Cup-bound Ali Williams lasted 80 minutes in impressive fashion, making his first-class return from a fractured jaw suffered in the second test against France nearly two months ago.

Partnering younger brother Jay in the second row for the first time at provincial level, Ali Williams was prominent around the field and finished strongly with a break to set up Munro's final try.

Ward kicked three penalties to give Auckland a 16-3 halftime lead and two more after the break.

Bay attacked whenever they could but most raids were snuffed out.