Sav's Sidelines: RIP Rugby Park’s media box
Sav's Sidelines - the weekly column that looks at all things Southland rugby, from the grassroots to the professional game.
This week’s Sav’s Sidelines column again salutes the signing of Sean Withy. The column also acknowledges the end of an era at Rugby Park with the removal of the media box, and it also covers another special rugby win on Saturday over Otago, this one in the schoolboy ranks. Plus the weekly Blast from the Past.
RIP Rugby Park’s media box…
What I’m about to write possibly has an interested readership of only a few. Former Southland rugby writers Lynn McConnell, Daryl Holden, and Nathan Burdon spring to mind.
But I’ll push on to at least mark the end of the era at Rugby Park.
Sometime between the end of the 2023 NPC and the start of the 2024 NPC season the media box at Rugby Park disappeared.
There were upgrades made and the previous media box has now been repurposed into a corporate box.
I haven’t delved too deep into exactly what’s gone on here, because sometimes in life you just need to take the message on the chin that there are more important people needing to be looked after than you and you’ve largely become irrelevant.
I’m also aware it doesn’t attract much sympathy when someone in the media pulls out the violin in search of that sympathy.
But let me at least record this end of an era.
I got my first opportunity to cover rugby from that now defunct media box in 2004 as a cub reporter. I worked alongside the likes of Nathan Burdon and Daryl Holden at that time. Rugby writers from opposition teams would also visit.
It was a unique and an often quiet place considering what was unfolding beyond the big glass windows.
Some of Southland rugby’s more special moments would take place in front of us and the journos would simply scribble in their notebooks as if they were jotting down their weekly grocery list.
Vocal celebrating in sporting media boxes is generally frowned upon. It is some sort of statement that we are all impartial.
The reality though is under the surface you would be either fizzing with pride in those moments of Southland success or cursing when another win got away.
However, that unwritten media box rule was thrown out in 2010 when North Otago visited for a Ranfurly Shield challenge.
Otago Daily Times sports editor - and the pride of Oamaru - Hayden Meikle walked into the box, took off his jacket, and revealed he was wearing a North Otago team jersey, much to the laughter of the rest of us.
My most memorable moment during my 20 years working from that media box also came in 2010.
Southland hosted Otago in a Ranfurly Shield defence. For many years I’d soaked up stories from Southland old-timers about their special memories attending a jam-packed Rugby Park as a kid.
On that day in 2010, it felt like I finally knew what they were talking about as I scanned the ground to see the 17,500 Rugby Park crowd that showed up.
As I say farewell to that final media box at Rugby Park, I’ll also acknowledge its predecessor. That could be found at the very top of the old Rugby Park grandstand before the stadium underwent a major redevelopment in the early 2000s.
It was before my time writing about rugby, but I’ve heard many tales about the ladder that led people to that box, and some of the safety issues that might not pass modern-day scrutiny.
I understand the box was heated by a one-bar heater named Albie in honour of former Southland rugby writer Albie Keast.
That box was where the likes of Keast, Lynn McConnell, John Morrison, and Don Wright watched on as some special Southland rugby moments unfolded - wins over France in 1979 and 1989 included.
Burdon - who spent his early days as a rugby writer operating out of that media box - believes it had arguably one of the best views of rugby in the country.
That’s that then.
The schoolboy team that keeps delivering…
There’s was another special Southland rugby win on Saturday over Otago that didn’t capture the same sort of attention but did provide a pretty loud statement.
It came in the schoolboy ranks.
Southland Boys’ High School hosted Otago Boys’ High School in semifinal fixture of the Highlanders-wide first XV competition.
At 12-10 at halftime at Les George Oval we could have all been mistaken in thinking we had a nail-biting thriller in store.
Instead, we got a rampant second-half performance from a Southland Boys’ first XV that just keeps on delivering.
Southland Boys’ run-up 27 unanswered second half points to win 40-12.
They racked up four second half tries, all converted by first five-eighth Mika Muliaina to book a spot on the final.
They will take on Kings’ High School who beat John McGlashan 27-22 in the other semifinal.
The win over that final will progress to the South Island final and of course the winner of that game would then progress to the national Top 4 finals.
Of course, followers of Southland Boys’ are well aware of all of that given the heroics of the 2023 national title.
When a plan turns out to be the perfect one…
Sometimes there’s a moment in life when you can sit back and satisfactorily state, “Well, that plan worked”.
When new Stags captain Sean Withy grabbed hold of the microphone after the win over Otago on Saturday and sparked the Rugby Park terrace into a Soooouthland chant, for Rugby Southland officials it must have felt like one of those moments.
Rugby Southland opted to go hard in the offseason to lure Withy home feeling he could be the circuit-breaker needed for a Stags outfit who had struggled for success over many years.
There were a few elements to it, including the statement it would make that a Southland lad does see a future in the Stags.
Then there’s the obvious playing ability, Withy is a high-quality Super Rugby player who is still on the up.
And to top it off, he’s a follow me time leader that appears can the best out of those around him.
We saw all of that play out on Saturday at Rugby Park. In Sean Withy we trust.
Saturday’s 22-13 Donald Stuart Memorial Trophy win was a special moment for Southland rugby and also for Withy for that matter.
“It didn’t really sink in until I’d done my [TV] interview and then looking at the crowd, it was unreal. All the boys embracing them at the end,” Withy told The Tribune.
“You could hear [the supporters] the whole way though. It’s a great feeling.”
Naturally Withy was on the end of a bit of verbal stick from the opposition on Saturday given he’d swapped teams and was playing against many good mates.
“I copped a wee bit but that last five minutes but I started giving a bit back out when it was pretty much wrapped up. I didn’t give out too much but copped a bit.”
As far as the game itself?
“We left a lot of points out there, a couple of held ups. We had a lot more points in us, but I think our defence was awesome. We forced them into a lot of mistakes and we turned the ball over quite easily as well. It’s positive.”
Blast from the past…
In the lead up to Southland’s Ranfurly Shield challenge against Hawke’s Bay on Saturday let’s turn the clock back to 2020 when the Stags knocked over Hawke’s Bay in round one of NPC.
I can confirm that many rugby writers took their lives in their hands walking out in the half-dark over the planks which (it felt like) were all that were standing between you and a 30m drop into the crowd below as you made your way out over the roof and into the old press box at Rugby Park (pre-development). Once safely ensconced in the box, however, you were treated with an uninterrupted view of Rugby Park - probably the best viewing of any press box I've been in. On a cold day, 'Albie' the one-bar heater would manfully attempt to keep the place warm. Its fraying power cord was an optimistic nod to the fact that if the stand did happen to burn down then we might be able to afford a new one. On a fine day, the big front window could be pushed up and out, and the roar of the crowd below provided an orchestral accompaniment to the game in front of us. It also allowed the media who were smokers (which was the norm rather than the exception in those simpler times) to pitch their butts out the front where they would bounce and hop their way down into the welcoming guttering.
Has the age old courtesy of having a programme at these games disappeared along with the press box?