Sav's Sidelines: Farah Palmer Cup or feeder province, what's Southland's future?
Sav's Sidelines - the weekly column that looks at all things Southland rugby, from the grassroots to the professional game.
There’s plenty in this week’s Sav’s Sidelines column, including a look at whether Southland’s Farah Palmer Cup quest is a pipeline dream, given where the Southland Hinds women’s team is currently at.
Also, how does Southland premier club rugby stack up against our Dunedin counterparts? and why did the Southland Stags name four halfbacks?
We also look at Ethan de Groot and Pasilio Tosi’s reunion in the All Black jersey, and take a trip back to a 1999 Stags preseason game in Gore.
The Farah Palmer Cup reality check…
Prior to Rugby Southland CEO Steve Mitchell’s departure this year, he had indicated a desire to have a Southland team playing in the Farah Palmer Cup in 2025.
That won’t be happening. Clicking your fingers and entering the Farah Palmer Cup is fanciful.
If Southland is serious about it, it needs to actually be serious about it.
If not, stop the grand statements and simply acknowledge the Southland team’s future is as a development team for the likes of neighbours Otago and Canterbury which do play in the Farah Plamer Cup.
At the moment Southland is the only province that has a team playing in their men’s topflight NPC competition that doesn’t also have a team in the top women’s team competition.
Current Hinds coach Craig Pullar admits, at this point of time with what’s unfolding in Southland, the Farah Palmer Cup is a “pipe dream”.
“If [Southland] is serious about going to Farah Palmer Cup they are going to have to change stuff. They can’t keep doing what they are doing because it is never going to happen.”
The dilemma was highlighted on Saturday at the Les George Oval when the Southland Hinds got a chance to play a preseason outing against the Otago Spirit - a second-tier Farah Palmer Cup team.
It had the potential to be a good gauge for as to where the Hinds were at, but in Pullar’s words, it was a “train crash waiting to happen”.
The Southland Hinds was pretty well set up to fail as Otago raced out to a 51-0 halftime lead before pushing on to a 102-5 victory.
Southland went into the game on the back of one training session following the completion of the club competition last Saturday.
But on top of that, Southland rolled out a traditional playing 23 for the game while Otago brought 36 players south. It meant Otago was able to bring a whole new forward pack off the bench in the second half against a tiring Southland team.
Just to add another elbow to the ribs, the Otago team featured 2023 Southland Hinds player of the year Leila Hill who has this year decided to link with the Spirit.
“To be fair they stuck it out pretty bloody well I thought,” Pullar said about what the Southland players came up against on Saturday.
The Hinds does have a solid five-game programme in place for 2024 which started with that outing at the Les George Oval on Saturday.
Pullar said this week would be about restoring some confidence in the group after being exposed by the Spirit.
Southland will play Otago Development this weekend in Dunedin, before another trip to Dunedin the week after to play a South Island Heartland XV.
They will then take on Canterbury Development in Oamaru and host Otago Development in a second fixture in Gore.
Comparing Dunedin, Southland club finals…
On Saturday I took some time to watch the livestream of the Dunedin Premier Club rugby final between Green Island and Dunedin at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The reason it sparked some interest for me is the Southland connections, most notably outside backs Josh Augustine and Tayne Harvey. I’ll delve into that a bit more in a bit.
The bonus was that I got to listen to commentator, and Southland rugby critic, Paul Dwyer’s meltdown late in the game as his Dunedin club also had a meltdown on the field in the 21-16 loss.
That aside, I’ll be honest Dunedin’s club final left me a little underwhelmed, in terms of the quality of rugby on offer.
Seven days earlier one of the best Southland club finals played out that I’ve personally seen, in terms of intensity. In my assessment (admittedly with a maroon eye-patch on) the Les George Oval slugfest trumped what played out on Saturday at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
That’s not me declaring Southland club rugby is better than our Dunedin neighbours, because I’m comparing one Dunedin game that I’ve watched this year to one of the best club contests seen in Southland in a while.
But I’ll at least make this controversial call; Southland’s club champions Star - and maybe even Pirates-Old Boys - would have beaten Green Island or Dunedin with what they both offered up on Saturday.
Back to Augustine and Harvey. The outside backs are in their first year out of their respective North Island schools and have made the shift to Dunedin to link with the Highlanders on development contracts.
Instead of signing with Otago, they will join Southland for their provincial rugby.
It’s understood Augustine has captured plenty of attention with his form playing for Dunedin’s premier team this season. Although he didn’t have the greatest outing in Saturday’s final, given he was shown a yellow card and dropped the ball with the line open.
Harvey started on the wing in Saturday’s final, but his preferred position is in the midfield.
Both will spend some time training with the Stags this year although their main focus will be lining up for the Scott Eade-coached Southland U19 team.
If Augustine and Harvey follow the expected pathway, hopefully, they will become regular Stags in 2025.
Halfback idol…
Some onlookers might have been a little puzzled when the Stags named four halfbacks in their 2024 NPC squad on Monday, so it might be worth providing a bit of clarity.
The Stags decision-makers had wanted to see Lachlan Albert (Star) and Liam Howley (Woodlands) go head-to-head at in a club rugby semifinal before deciding which of those two would join Connor Collins and Jay Renton as the third halfback.
However, it appears after that game the decision proved more difficult than expected.
“Liam and Lachie are guaranteed to be with us for four weeks, but we haven’t made the decision on that yet,” Stags coach Matt Saunders said.
“It’s really hard to split them. Lachie has played 14 club games at a high-standard, Liam is coming back from injury and played really well in the semifinal and did exactly what we asked him to do.
“In brutal honestly, we didn’t know what to do. They weren’t really happy when we didn’t make the decision and we’ve asked them to compete for another four weeks, but they have both agreed to it.
“It’s a tough situation but they have both handled it really well…. It’s created more depth so it’s great for our team but maybe a bit tough on Liam and Lachie if or when one of them does drop out.”
Renton is currently in the United States playing and his Houston team is likely to progress to the Major League Rugby final. That will mean he will return to Southland just days before the start of the NPC and would be unlikely to be available to play against Otago on August 10.
Renton hasn’t been required a lot in the Houston playing 23 so will return with little rugby under his belt.
“He is in a professional environment and is keen as mustard, he reckons he has learned a lot. It’s the first time he has been away and in a new environment so he would have learned a lot professionally and personally. He is going come back excited,” Saunders said.
Reuniting in the All Blacks…
Pasilio Tosi and Ethan de Groot both came off the bench on Saturday to lineup in the frontrow for the All Blacks against Fiji in San Diego.
Tosi made his All Black debut slotting in at tighthead prop and de Groot stepped in at loosehead prop.
From what I have worked out Tosi and de Groot last were in a playing 23 together in 2020 playing for the Southland Stags in a 10-9 loss to Waikato.
de Groot started that game at loosehead prop while Tosi came off the bench at tight-head prop late in the game in what was his first game playing in the front row at NPC level after switching from No 8.
Blast from the past…
This Friday Gore will host a Southland-Otago preseason fixture. The town has hosted a few preseason outings over the years, including this one back in 1999 when the Stags hosted Marlborough at the Gore Showgrounds.
The Marlborough team featured a young David Hill at first five-eighth who went on to play for the Stags and the All Blacks.
Check out the Mercury Sport story which covered off what happened in that 1999 preseason game.
Easy decision to make at halfback, sign the guy who’s been playing.