Was the preseason Stags result as bad as it looked?
It’s hard to think Southland won’t get a bit more ball to attack from against Waikato in round one on Sunday.
Let’s start with the major positive from the Southland Stags’ 31-7 preseason loss to Otago in Dunedin on Friday.
Rugby Southland director of rugby Matt Saunders says they pretty much came through unscathed on the injury front.
Sometimes when it comes to preseason rugby that is a significant victory in itself as the Stags eye its competition opener against Waikato on Sunday in Invercargill.
But in terms of the actual performance?
Saunders concedes the 31-7 scoreline doesn’t read well. Although he viewed it a little more positively than maybe some fans who might be pondering; ‘here we go again’.
Southland led 7-5 at halftime before conceding 26 unanswered second half points.
Saunders says the fact that Otago made just one line break throughout the 80 minutes pointed to the fact that in most part, Southland was defensively sound.
The tries they conceded came from the likes of maul drives or cross kicks.
“We just had [to defend] so many 5m lineouts and no matter who you are playing, if they’ve got that many they are going to rack up some points.”
On the other hand, the Stags created a handful of line breaks but simply failed to capitalise on those.
“We made a fair few line breaks and just coughed it up. It was mainly our own fault.
“Everything is not far away, we were just not clinical enough and it cost us.”
While Southland wasn’t as clinical as it needed to be, Otago was.
Southland never got a scrum from an Otago dropped ball.
Otago dropped the ball once and that was when they were under penalty advantage.
Maybe the question could be raised as to whether Southland was applying enough pressure to force any mistakes. Possibly.
But it’s hard to think Southland won’t get a bit more ball to attack from against Waikato in round one.
Another sticking point in the preseason loss to Otago was its discipline.
The Stags simply gave away too many penalties, and they are not shying away from the fact they themselves were at fault.
Considering referee Fraser Hannon will also referee the Southland-Waikato game on Sunday the Stags need to be much better in the discipline stakes.
“We were overkeen at ruck time. We really wanted to pressure there but maybe we got it a bit wrong.”
Southland will need to be better against Waikato on Sunday if it can snag an early victory but there’s no sense of panic as a strong looking Otago team powered home in Dunedin on Friday.
“It reads bad, but it wasn’t as bad as it looks,” Saunders said.
On a side note - if Otago doesn’t give the 2023 competition a good shake with the resources they have at hand some serious questions need to be asked.
They’ve got the size up front and plenty of x-factor and depth in the backline.
the stags will be better for that hitout