Sav's Sidelines: Coaching CV continues to grow
Sav's Sidelines - the weekly column that looks at Southland sport, from the grassroots to the professional ranks.
It’s the end of November and just when we thought the Stags news might have come to a halt, we were wrong. Three Stags are playing preseason games for Toyota Verblitz in Japan, a couple of other Stags are training with Moana Pasifika, and there’s another group ready to start preseason with the Highlanders. Plus we’ve now got a Southlander coaching the Highlanders U20s. Plenty in this week’s Sav’s Sidelines column.
Eade’s coaching CV continues to grow…
Rugby Southland pathways manager Scott Eade’s progression as a promising coach continues with the former Stags first five-eighth named the Highlanders’ U20s head coach for its 2025 campaign.
Eade was this year part of the Highlanders U20s management as an assistant coach but applied for the head coaching role for 2025 and he got the nod.
The 32-year-old has made the transition into coaching while still playing club rugby, but he has conceded his playing days might now be close to over.
Although Eade is sitting on 149 games for his beloved Marist club so expect him to feature in a game or two at some stage for Marist later in the 2025 club season.
Eade is looking forward to taking on the challenge of leading the U20s campaign as a head coach after coaching the Southland U19 team this year.
“The head coaching comes with a bit more responsibility. It will be a good challenge to lead the coaching group, as well as the management group, and make sure we are all on the same page, and get the boys to buy in. That’s the big thing,” Eade told The Tribune.
“It’s different from the U19s, or even at club, you are preparing for a tournament not for a big week-to-week campaign.”
He said coaching the Highlanders U20s team will provide some unique challenges.
“It’s a short campaign. Some guys [university students] have obviously gone home to all over the country until February really.
“So, there’s a lot of planning for when they come in in February and we’ll rip into it.”
The U20s tournament is in March with a couple of games scheduled in the lead up to that.
Thirteen players from this year’s team are available to return to the Highlander U20s in 2025. They are likely to make up close to half of the 27-strong to head to the tournament.
A strong Southland contingent is expected with the likes of Tayne Harvey, Josh Augustine, Gregor Rutledge, Shaun Kempton, Justin Shaw, and JJ Fisher part of the squad this year and will likely return.
The likes of Mika Muliana, Thomas Jennings, and Jayden Broome, who finished up at school in Southland this year, will also be contenders for selection.
Development opportunities for Southland youngsters…
On top of the six Stags in the main Highlanders squad, and Jack Sexton in a wider training role, two Southland youngsters will join the Highlanders for its preseason starting next week in a development capacity.
Midfielder Tayne Harvey and hooker Shaun Kempton have National Development contracts which will see them spend the preseason with the Highlanders.
Harvey and Kempton were both 2023 New Zealand Secondary School players before opting to align with Southland in 2024.
Both were key figures in the Southland U19 team with Harvey making his Stags debut at the back end of the 2024 NPC season.
Rugby Southland pathways manager Scott Eade said the opportunity for them to be part of the Highlanders would be huge for their growth.
It should position them well for a push for the New Zealand U20s team next year.
“It’s amazing if you get to put them in the Highlanders for three months and see how physically they improve,” Eade said.
On top of that Josh Augustine, Gregor Rutledge, and Mika Muliaina are scheduled to spend some time training with the Highlanders from January.
Rookie of the Year’s welcomed return expected…
Everything is pointing to the return of 2024 Stags Rookie of the Year Faletoi Peni to Southland in 2025.
Rugby Southland has worked with Moana Pasifika to allow Auckland-based Peni some time training in the Super Rugby setup at the moment.
Peni will then head overseas to take up a contract in the United States.
He will link with the New England Free Jacks under the guidance of coach Ryan Martin, who has previously been part of the Otago, Northland, Toyota Verblitz, and Melbourne Rebels coaching setups.
The Major League Rugby competition will run from February through to July.
With Rugby Southland working to help get Peni the training opportunity at Moana Pasifika it suggests the second five-eighth is set to return to the Stags for the 2025 NPC which will start in August.
“He’s a professional footy player [now], so it can only be good for him,” Southland coach Matt Saunders said.
Peni was probably the find of the year for the Stags in 2024.
The 2022 and 2023 Auckland club rugby player of the year was unable to crack the Auckland NPC squad and initially was handed a four-week trial with the Stags.
That turned into a fulltime contract as Peni emerged as a strike weapon on attack for the Stags.
Peni himself acknowledged he has some work to do conditioning-wise. The hope is the opportunity to concentrate on rugby all year round in 2025 will help with that.
He appears to be a Super Rugby quality player if he can improve that aspect of his game.
No 8 Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa is also currently in Auckland training with Moana Pasifika as part of Rugby Southland’s quest to get more players involved in professional environments.
“We’ve worked together there [with Moana Pasifika]. Tana [Umaga] and Kevin Senio have been really good to work with,” Saunders said.
“Semisi will train with them right up until they start playing, but the hope for him is he really impresses.”
The ideal outcome is he impresses enough that a long-term opportunity might open up with Moana Pasifika.
Stags trio get game time in Japan…
Three Stags players have lined up in preseason fixtures for Toyota Verblitz in Japan in another addition to an ever-growing Southland-Toyota relationship.
Rugby Southland director of rugby and Stags coach Matt Saunders said they initially planned to send one player to Japan for the preseason experience with Toyota Verblitz.
That was midfielder Matt Whaanga who missed the entire NPC season through a hamstring injury and was overlooked for a 2025 Super Rugby contract.
With Toyota Verblitz having five lock-looseforwards away on international duties te club asked if the Stags also had a looseforward to send over to help during the preseason.
“We said we’ve got just the guy for you, that was Blair [Ryall],” Saunders said.
On Saturday night Saunders then got a message from Southlander Jason Price - who is Toyota Verblitz’s head of performance - asking if there was a hooker on hand to help at short notice.
Toyota Verblitz had picked up some injuries last weekend and needed a hooker as cover.
By Monday morning Jacob Payne was on the plane from Queenstown to Japan to link with Toyota Verblitz.
For the next three weekends, Toyota Verblitz’s A and B teams both have preseason games with the three Stags players to be involved.
Ryall started in a game against Kobe Steelers on Friday, with Whaanga on the bench.
Whaanga then backed up the next day to start for Toyota’s second team against the Hino Red Dolphins with Payne and Ryall on the bench.
The plan is for the Southland trio will return to New Zealand in mid-December after Toyota Verblitz’s preseason.
Saunders said it was a great opportunity for those players to work with former All Black coaches Steve Hansen and Ian Foster who are part of the Toyota Verblitz setup. As well as with players like former All Black Aaron Smith, league convert Joseph Manu, and 79-test Scottish international Richie Gray who are all at Toyota Verblitz.
Saunders joked that they may have made a mistake sending Ryall to Japan given the potential long-term interest he might attract there.
“The reports are really positive, we thought we might have made an error sending him over,” Saunders joked.
“If that’s the case it would be unreal, if there is no Super for these boys next year and they’ve impressed over in Japan - not just at Toyota - they get to play against three other teams in Japan as well. It’s a great opportunity for them.”
Saunders said Rugby Southland has worked hard to find and provide opportunities for more players to be involved in professional environments to assist their development.
“All these players could come back 3% better and its small margins we are talking to get from three wins to six wins… You are talking two of the greatest coaches in history [they are working with].”
Price and Pirates-Old Boys coach Ben McHugh sparked the Southland-Toyota Verblitz relationship last year when four Toyota Verblitz players linked with the Pirates-Old Boys club.
The relationship has continued to grow.
Toyota Verblitz again sent players to Southland to play club rugby this year and those players also spent some time training in the Stags setup.
Toyota Verblitz assistant coach Ueno Ryuta helped with the Stags defence during the early stages of the NPC this year, while Saunders and fellow Stags coach James Wilson visited Japan earlier this year as part of a personal development opportunity.
“Pricey and Ben McHugh started it, and you’ve got to give Pricey a lot of credit for making the most of it.”
Wider-training squad opportunities…
While the various Super Rugby teams have announced their main squads for the 2025 season, the wider training contracts haven’t yet been officially revealed.
Southland’s wider training involvement isn’t expected to be extensive, although prop Jack Sexton is tipped to be part of the Highlanders wider squad.
It’s a well-deserved opportunity on the back of an encouraging 2024 NPC campaign with the Stags.
Sexton was a fringe Canterbury player before throwing his lot in with Southland and the loosehead prop has made the most of the regular game time at that level.
As part of a wider training contract, Sexton will spend a couple of days a week training with the Highlanders and is likely to get some game time through the preseason.
He’s in the perfect place to impress in front of the Highlanders’ decision-makers and potentially push for further Super Rugby opportunities if injuries strike in the propping department.
Blast from the Past…
Here’s some highlights from 2024 Stags Rookie of the Year Faletoi Peni’s days playing in Auckland. They probably provide some background as to why he piqued the interest of the Stags decision-makers and led to them providing Peni with an initial four-week trial in the Southland setup this year.
