The Bay of Plenty Steamers needed a desperate last ditch defensive effort on their own line to hold out a rampant Counties Manukau and hang on for their second straight Mitre 10 Cup victory in Pukekohe last night.

They've added a 22-17 win over Counties Manukau to their opening night demolition of Taranaki to launch their campaign with two from two over Premiership tier teams, and hold on to the Chiefs Country Cup.

In contrast to the first match though this one was an arm-wrestle throughout, despite the Steamers controlling territory and possession for long periods, particularly in the first half.

The fact they were unable to take better advantage of that dominance, and take no more than a 10-5 lead into the break, might be one of the issues coach Clayton McMillan addresses with the team in the post match discussions.

A clear positive for the blue and golds however was the demonstration of the squad depth they've assembled this year. Hooker and captain Liam Polwart, who was a doubt through the week but was named in the starting 15, was ruled out late in the piece meaning a promotion from the bench for Angus McDonald. He in turn was replaced in the second spell meaning a run for the team's sixth choice hooker, Greerton Marist's Joe Key.

The game opened in controversial fashion when lock Aaron Carroll went in for a second try in Steamers colours after his first on debut last week, but it was chalked off by an obstruction ruling from the TMO. It would have been just reward for the Bay boys after a strong opening in which they looked to have got their game plan of simple direct rugby working to good effect early.

The forwards were doing great work building phases and pressure on the Counties line, but it was a back this time who got the reward. Fullback Chase Tiatia was in great position to take a long pass from the base of a ruck from halfback Richard Judd and simply had to fall over the line to score.

Mike Delany, who was doing his customary great job manipulating the game from first five, added the conversion to give the visitors a 7-0 lead.

Against the run of play it was the home side who were next on the board when ex-Steamers hooker Joe Royal - who struggled all night to get his lineout throwing straight - got over in a lineout drive.

His try went uncoverted meaning the Steamers held a slender two point lead, which became 10-5 at half time when Delany added a penalty after the hooter.

The Steamers had bossed the first 40, including spending 74 percent of it in Counties territory, but 10 points was scant reward for it. And they were made to pay early in the second spell when Counties came out firing and got winger Sione Molia over for a try in the corner, getting the better of a stretched Steamers' defensive line.

It was however the cue for normal service to be resumed as the visitors took the ascendency again, mixing their characteristic patient phase play with a little more atypical ad-lib rugby with ball in hand. The payoff came when Richard Judd was able to get in under the posts after a period of close-quarters sniping on the Counties line.

Around ten minutes into the half Steamers management began emptying the bench, meaning game time for, among others, Tanerau Latimer, Te Puke's Jason Robertson on debut at first five, and halfback Luke Campbell.

And Campbell it was who created the third try, and Tiatia's second, with a superbly weighted kick over the top of the home side's pack, after Tyler Adron had forced a turnover with a huge tackle on Counties' number 8 Sam Henwood.

That gave the Steamers the biggest lead of the match at 22-12, but any thoughts of easing out to a comfortable victory were blown away when Henwood scored a third for Counties. A missed conversion meant the sides were five points apart at 22-17 going into the last phase of the match, and Counties would need at least a try to get something out of it.

But they were painfully close to getting it in a nail-biting sequence at the death when the Steamers, who were being hammered in the penalty count, were demolished in a scrum hard on their own line and conceded another penalty.

Counties chose to kick for touch and set up a lineout drive, which came agonisingly close to succeeding but was held up just in the field of play by the Steamers defence, meaning they got the feed into the resulting scrum.

By this time the final hooter had gone, and after his forward pack this time managed to hold themselves together in the scrum halfback Campbell was able to kick for touch and bring on the Steamers celebrations.

Stand-in skipper Mike Delany was proud of his team's effort, hanging on for an away win over another Premiership outfit after a short turnaround.

'We stuck in there, we knew it was going to be tough. They've got some big boys and they carry pretty hard but I'm just proud of them for hanging in there.”

He was particularly impressed with the effort of the guys who came off the bench.

'We've got a strong squad and it's the nature of this competition you've got to call on everyone so it's pleasing for us as a group that we can come through that with the injuries that we had.”

Next assignment for the blue and golds is at Tauranga Domain on Saturday week taking on defending Premiership champions Canterbury, and Delany feels they still have work to do to prepare for that despite their unbeaten start to the season.

'I think we were a bit sloppy in this game, we didn't look after the pill properly and our exits weren't great so against a good Canterbury team we're going to get stung for that so that'll probably be our work on for this week.”

Bay of Plenty Steamers 22 (Chase Tiatia 2, Richard Judd tries; Mike Delany 2 con, pen. Counties Manukau 17 (Joseph Royal, Sione Molia, Sam Henwood tries; Latiume Fosita con. HT: 10-5