'It was the hardest part': Saunders' tough phone calls
"That was the hardest part by a mile. The only hard part of the decision, to be honest, was those fellas.”
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The toughest part of Matt Saunders’ decision to step down as the Southland Stags coach came late last week.
Soon after handing in his resignation, Saunders hit the phone. One by one, he broke the news to the players.
Naturally, he had built a bond with those players, and it was Saunders who signed almost all of them.
“It was the hardest part,” Saunders said about the phone calls.
“It was what I really struggled with is the players, you feel like you are leaving them in the lurch a bit.
“That is the part that I really enjoyed the most, is working with the players and watching your Semisi [Tupou Taeiloa’s] and whatnot do what they have been doing.
“So that was the hardest part by a mile. The only hard part of the decision, to be honest, was those fellas,” Saunders said.
“All the highlights have been seeing the players succeed. Jack Sexton came down as a fringe Canterbury player, now he is a Southlander who is hopefully going to be a Super player.
“Getting [Sean] Withy back. He won us Stag Day last year with his performance. Just seeing the likes of big Baz Dunshea, he is a Southlander now, he loves it down here.
“There are so many of them. Getting Isaac [Te Tamaki] back, working with [Matt Whaanga], Morgy Mitchell, there are so many great men.”
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Saunders has confidence in the new coaching group, but he is just as confident in the growing leadership qualities within the current-day Stags squad.
While much of the focus centres on the coaches, Saunders felt 2025 would be a year where Southland’s playing leadership would shine.
“We’ve actually got quite an experienced NPC squad. With an NPC squad, you’ve usually got a lot of young kids. We’ve got a few young good ones coming through, but if you look at our squad this year, it’s bloody experienced.
“I’ve got a bit of faith they are going to do a pretty good job,” Saunders said.
“I don’t like to go back to the past too much, but when we had that good era, we had great coaches [Simon Culhane, David Henderson], but the players were driving a lot of the standards.
“We started to see that last year - not as much as we needed - but there was definitely growth, and I can only see that getting better this year.”
While Saunders won’t be part of the coaching setup this year, his fingerprints will still be all over the campaign, given he has pretty much put together the 2025 Stags squad.
He has also had a hand in sorting his replacement, Nathan White.
Although Saunders concedes he will struggle to watch on as a spectator this year, given what he will now be missing.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to watch Stag Day, to be fair, and I genuinely mean that. I’ll probably follow it on the Tribe app, I think. That will be a tough day.
“I might mow the lawns or something.”
Saunders is returning to the supermarket industry with Foodstuffs.
He had owned the Four Square in Tapanui before he took up a job with Rugby Southland as its director of rugby in 2023. He will now take over the Four Square in Otatara next month.
Former Irish prop Nathan White has replaced him as a Stags co-coach, while Scott Eade has stepped in as an assistant coach.