Coach urges Super Rugby team to snap up No 8
"It’s baffling that he is not with someone already to be fair.”
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Stags coach Matt Saunders is baffled that a Super Rugby organisation hasn’t moved quickly to draft No 8 Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa into their setup.
The 20-year-old was one of the Stags’ best during the 2024 NPC season with his physical presence a key asset for Southland.
That was on show for all to see when Tupou Ta’eiloa turned in an aggressive first half showing with ball in hand on Saturday which propelled Southland to a 47-7 halftime lead.
“He has been one of our best all year consistently, and [on Saturday] he was just exceptional,” Saunders said.
The Stags signed the former New Zealand Under-19 and Highlanders Under-20 No 8 on a four-year deal starting with the 2023 NPC season.
Tupou Ta’eiloa is a former Otago Boys’ High School player who was contracted with Otago on a development contract.
Rugby Southland looked like they were going to secure his services on a three-year contract starting from 2024.
However, Otago eventually agreed to release the No 8 to join Southland for the 2023 season which stretched it to a four-year contract.
Tupou Ta’eiloa played in nine Stags games last season - eight on them from the bench.
By the end of his second season, the 20-year-old had become Southland’s first choice No 8, and there is now some genuine excitement around what’s in store in the future.
Tupou Ta’eiloa had a big Southland club rugby season helping lift Star to a Galbraith Shield title in the lead-up to his massive Stags campaign this year.
“There has got to be some sort of Super involvement... Surely someone will have to have a look at him,” Saunders said.
“Club rugby - he’s too good for it, without being rude to other players. I’ll be stunned if someone doesn’t look at him for a wider training group or something like that.
“They say he is too short at lineout time, but who cares? It’s baffling that he is not with someone already to be fair.”
“It’s just trying to get him a wider training contract, there has been a bit of interest, and hopefully that one there [on Saturday] gets the interest. He’s been great all year and I can’t recall him having a bad game.”
The need to get more players into Super Rugby environments has been a common theme in recent years when assessing what needs to happen to help push the Stags further up the NPC ladder.
The number of Southland Super Rugby players is not expected to grow too much in 2025, on the back of the 2024 NPC season.
“You’ve got to win a lot to get guys noticed. Early on I was getting a lot of phone calls and then it dried up when we went through a bit of a baron patch,” Saunders said.
“There has been some interest in guys from America and Super Rugby wise, so the next month will be interesting.”
Contracts with Major League Rugby teams in the United States are the next best option to get players, who don’t get Super Rugby gigs, into a professional rugby environment all year round.
The issue though with Major League Rugby is the timing of the competition. The Major Rugby League final was this year played on August 4 - five days before the start of the NPC season.