Tiatia and BoP Steamers hoping to tame Lions on Thursday night

Above: Chase Tiatia (Left) in earnest discussion with his Chiefs teammates including Stephen Donald (facing) in June's Chiefs versus British and Irish Lions match. Photo by Dave Lintott Photography 

Chase Tiatia is putting an injury layoff earlier this year behind him and is enjoying being back in Bay of Plenty Steamers colours in the NPC.

BoP lost to Northland 23-28 in their first match, but bounced back to convincingly beat Hawke’s Bay 46-17.

Tiatia played at fullback in both outings, where he is expected to be named tomorrow for the third match against the Wellington Lions at Rotorua International Stadium on Thursday night.

“I’m just glad to be back playing good footie after breaking my ankle in our final game last season against Otago. I was off the bench for five minutes and then straight back on it with a broken ankle," he told Club Rugby.

He spent the off-season and a good chunk of the new season on the mend and building his fitness back up, playing a few games for his Rangataua club before making a memorable return to big time rugby for the Chiefs against the British and Irish Lions.

“That was my first and only game so far for the Chiefs, and I loved the experience. It was a packed out stadium and they were the best so I couldn’t ask for much more.”

If BoP beat the Wellington Lions this Thursday it will be their first win over them since 2011 when the Bay forwards steamrolled the Lions in the Mt Maunganui sunshine to register a 32-0 blanking.

Since then, the Lions have won 36-26 in Mt Maunganui in 2012, 33-16 in Wellington in 2013, 31-13 in Mt Maunganui in 2015 and 24-10 in Wellington last year.

“We know that our game plan works and in the first half against Northland we stuck to our game plan and played some good footie,” Tiatia said. “But we sort of went away from that and Northland got on top us, but against Hawke’s Bay we stuck to what we were trying to do and we won well.”

“Wellington are tracking well, it will be good to see where we sit against them and hopefully knock them off their perch," said the former St Pat’s Silverstream and Hutt Old Boys Marist Jubilee Cup winner.

He has been following the progress of some of the young Lions coming through the ranks, such as another Silverstream old boy, Asafo Aumua. “I played with him at school, and he’s a real athlete, strong and powerful.”

There could be three recent Silverstream players on the field at the same time on Thursday night, in Tiatia, Aumua and Wellington reserve back Losi Filipo who has been named to make his Lions debut in the 23 jersey.

Tiatia has played against the Lions once before. “I played them in 2015, we met them at Bay Park and they got on top of us that day [winning 31-13]."

He played on the left wing that day, showing his versatility to cover multiple positions. “I still play where I best fit in, either outside and inside backs is fine by me.”

Prior to that, he played two matches at first five-eighth for the Lions in 2014 in losses to Manawatu and Auckland when he was thrust in at first five-eighth, after playing the majority of the club season on the left wing for Hutt Old Boys Marist and scoring 19 tries in 21 Eagles appearances.

He still follows Wellington club rugby closely. “My BoP teammate James O’Reilly played in the Jubilee Cup final and I came down to watch it. Things just didn’t quite go our way, OBU scored some long-range tries so good on them for winning.”

“I’m also glad that my school’s right up there and playing against Hastings Boys’ High School this weekend [in the Hurricanes First XV final] so hopefully they win or come close to it.

“I’ve watched Silverstream a few times this year when I have been down seeing my family. They have a good forward pack and their backline goes really well.”

In all first-class matches between Wellington and Bay of Plenty, Wellington has won 35, Bay of Plenty has won five and there have been two draws. Wellington has scored 855 points including 114 tries in all matches against BoP, while BoP has scored 472 points and crossed for 49 tries in all first-class fixtures against Wellington.

They first met on 3 June 1912 at Athletic Park and Wellington scored eight tries in winning 40-3 that day.