Southland Stags see red in a Palmerston North nightmare
Southland Stags see red in a Palmerston North nightmare
Manawatu is a team the Stags should be beating at the moment and Wednesday night's loss will probably inflict a large mental dent.
Manawatu 26 (Jordi Viljoen, Malakai Hala-Ngatai, Pena Va’a, Pena Va’a tries; Reece McDonald 3 con), Southland 21 (Viliami Fine, Michael Manson, Nic Souchon tries; Byron Smith 3 con). HT 0-7.
Tribune MVP Points: Blair Ryall 3, Isaac Te Tamaki 2, Hayden Michaels 1.
Overall MVP Points: Sean Withy 9, Isaac Te Tamaki 7, Semisi Tupou Taeiloa 6, Dylan Nel 5, Morgan Mitchell 4, Blair Ryall 3, Michael Manson 3, Viliami Fine 2, Rory van Vugt 1, Lachlan Albert 1, Hayden Michaels 1.
The Southland Stags have leaked 26 points in a disastrous 30-minute period to slump to a 26-21 loss at the hands of bottom-of-the-table Manawatu in Palmerston North.
And for 20 minutes of those 30 minutes, Southland played with 14 players after wing Viliami Fine was shown a red card for a tackle that went wrong.
The Stags dominated much of the first quarter of the NPC game played on Wednesday night creating plenty of scoring opportunities, but they failed to convert most of those into points.
That inability to score points came on the back of a shambles of a lineout, an ineffective maul, and some untimely handling errors.
The Southland camp may feel a touch unlucky that the referee did not punish Manawatu further for some illegal play in a maul when the Stags were hot on attack and hooker Jack Taylor was heading to score.
Southland led just 7-0 at halftime, through a Fine try, despite looking the superior team while Manawatu hardly fired a shot.
When Stags wing Michael Manson scored a nice try six minutes into the second half - and with some heavy artillery coming off the bench for Southland - it felt like the foot was about to be put down and more reward was coming for the visitors.
But Manawatu started to win the physical battle and struck through halfback Jordi Viljoen in the 51st minute to reduce it to 14-7.
Then came a key moment in the game in the 58th minute.
Fine - who was Southland’s best player to that point - made contact with his shoulder to Manawatu fullback Drew Wild’s head.
Some will suggest there was a mitigating circumstance given Wild was dipping and almost on his knees.
However, Fine was deemed to have made no attempt to wrap his arms and led with the shoulder. It meant there were no mitigating circumstances and no other outcome but a red card in the modern game.
It was similar to Southland's previous outing against Canterbury when lock Micthell Dunshea was yellow carded and then suspended for a tackle that went wrong.
Fine may also now find himself missing some games on the back of the red card.
While the loss of a player was huge, Southland can’t simply point to that as the reason they crumbled late in the game.
Manawatu scored two tries in the space of five minutes to go from 14-7 down to 21-14 up with 15 minutes to play.
For whatever reason Southland looked gassed while Manawatu upped its tempo.
With five minutes to play, Southland did level the scores at 21-21 through a try to replacement hooker Nic Souchon which set up the grandstand finish.
With golden point extra time looming, standout Manawatu midfielder Kyle Brown broke the deadlock in the last act of the game scoring out wide to the delight of the Turbos faithful.
It meant Manawatu claimed a 26-21 victory - its first win in the 2024 NPC season.
For the Stags it was a killer blow to its playoff hopes and its quest to simply show all that the class of 2024 is an improved Southland team.
Manawatu is a team the Stags should be beating at the moment and Wednesday night will probably inflict a large mental dent.
Fine was impressive for the Stags before being red-carded, while Blair Ryall just keeps on delivering in a Southland jersey with both ball in hand and in defence.
Hayden Michaels got his first start in 2024 and will be better for it. The flanker has bulked up since last season which helps in the physicality exchanges.
The midfield pairing of Isaac Te Tamaki and Charlie Powell worked hard in defence, while Manson showed glimpses of his attacking quality.
But generally, it was a tough night for those in Stags jerseys.
Southland has little time to tend to the physical and mental wounds given the next assignment is on Sunday against Auckland in Auckland.
Rather than returning to Invercargill, the Stags will head straight to Auckland on Thursday to prepare for the Auckland showdown.