The big story is Bay of Plenty taking the top spot from Canterbury in a tight game at Bay Park Stadium - where BoP ran out 19-17 winners over last week's leaders. Meanwhile Auckland have continued their revival by winning away at Otago. Auckland are now only two places away from the top four and a play off berth.

Canterbury and Carter move to the top of the Air New Zealand Round Robin table and point scorers' table respectively as the BoP slip up at Auckland. With Caterbury dismantling Wellington at the Westpac, including a 24 point haul for newly reinstated All Black Daniel Carter,  it wasn't a time for the Bay of Plenty to slip up, but that is exactly what they did, going down 29-14 to Auckland at Eden Park.

Bay of Plenty  "Steamers" have set aside off-field issues to finish week four of the NZ national provincial championship as the only undefeated team in the competition. Saturday's 32-16 victory over Waikato leaves them astride a top four that also includes Canterbury, Southland and Wellington.Assistant coach Steve Miln wasn't surprised when his players shook off the issues around coach Smith who was stood down before the opening game and subsequently replaced by manager Sean Horan.

"They were a tight unit last year and they're a tight unit again this year," said Miln who's had three years with the Steamers as their backline guru."They're a good bunch of guys, and there's some great characters. Guys like Nigel Hunt and Zar Lawrence make it pretty special - you've got to have eyes in the back of your head with those guys.

SANZAR has received two expressions of interest from applicants wanting to join Super Rugby from 2011.