Bay of Plenty Steamers coach Clayton McMillan says he's not feeling the need to keep his team's feet on the ground after starting the season with bang – they're doing a pretty good job of that themselves.

The Steamers, one of the favourites for the Mitre 10 Cup Championship division title and promotion to the Premiership, have wins over top-tier teams Taranaki and Counties Manukau under their belt so far this campaign, but Clayton says they have the smarts to keep things in perspective.

'It's a pretty good group, they've managed to keep themselves on the ground so it's making the coach's job a little easier. A lot of the team's been around for a couple of years now so they're well aware a couple of wins at this stage of the season is a great start – but that's all it is, there's still a long journey to go.”

He's also confident they have the capacity to learn from the experience of the Counties match last Thursday night, which despite the result didn't go quite according to plan. The defensive effort in the dying moments of the match, in which they were forced to fight hard to protect their 22-17 lead, taught them a lot about themselves, he says.

'Yeah, it showed a lot of resilience and mental fortitude to roll up the sleeves right at the death there when the game was in the balance.

'But equally the learning was earlier on in the second half when we were up by ten points and we made some silly errors that allowed the opposition to get back in the game.

'So on the one hand you say look it's good we got the result but we certainly could have been a little more clinical and ruthless - smarter earlier on in the second half which may have been nicer on the coach's heart.

'So there's plenty of learnings. There's some good stuff and the fact that we won, but it wasn't entirely pretty and there's lots of stuff we can work on – that's probably a good sign for us.”

The two matches followed contrasting patterns, Clayton says, but the fact they were able to get through both, while testing the depth of their broader squad, brought him some satisfaction.

'Counties presented different challenges to Taranaki. They were able to put a bit of pressure on us with their big ball-carrying forwards and they had a reasonable set piece.

'But equally we had a number of changes again due to injury and late replacements, and it's not an easy job to pull somebody out of club rugby and throw them into the fold with a day and a half preparation.

'But those fellahs acquitted themselves well and that gives us some security knowing that we've got good people coming through our club system.”

He believes that depth is extending beyond his current squad down to the under 19 team too. The Baby Steamers whipped their Taranaki counterparts 94-0 on Saturday in another match that caught his eye.

'We did a lot of opposed training with the under 19s through June and July. They've worked extremely hard all year and showed a lot of potential so we've always held high aspirations for them, and they're certainly stepping up to the mark.

'I watched them play on the weekend and it would be easy to think looking at that score that Taranaki just didn't show up but the brutal reality was that they just got blown off the park.”

Turning his attention to the forthcoming Canterbury assignment this Saturday Clayton feels the Tauranga Domain match will be a good test of where they currently stand. 'It always is. They've been pacesetters of this competition for the last ten years. Nine championships in ten years speaks for itself.”

He does see some potential chinks in their armour, however. 'They've got a little bit of new cattle in their team and new coaching staff so it'll take a little while for them to be firing on all cylinders which we hope to exploit this week.”

He hinted with a long campaign still to come they may look at exposing some squad players who have so far been in the background to the heat of battle but firmly believes whatever combination he puts out on the park will be capable of beating the champions.

'It's a little bit of a balancing act. I think in some games, especially with short turnarounds and where we are sitting on the table, a little bit of strategy comes into play.

'We need to be able to rely on the full squad to get through to the business end of the season so while you'd like to chuck the same 23 players out there every week if results are going your way you still need to be ticking over other guys in the background.

'But our mindset is we believe we're good enough to win and that's how we approach the game.”

They took their foot off the pedal a little after the tight timeframe of the first two matches, Clayton says, but preparation for Saturday is ramping up.

'We needed a good break. It was quite tough having to back up five days after playing Taranaki to play Counties but we've had Friday to Sunday off and we've got a full week's preparation which always helps.

'So we'll just build up nicely. As we get closer to the game we'll start to ramp things up and naturally get excited about playing Canterbury at home so at this stage everything's looking really good.”

He says the team love playing at the Tauranga Domain and can't wait to get back on the ground where they did so well in front of generous-sized crowds last year.

'Our recent memories there are awesome where the whole community got in behind the team and we're really hoping that'll be the case again this weekend.”