HEAD TO HEAD: Southland vs Canterbury
VENUE & TIME: Rugby Park, Invercargill, Saturday October 9, 19.35 NZT.
Two Southlanders are returning from long-term injuries: James Wilson has been out since round two and starts at second-five, while David Hall’s return as reserve hooker marks the end of a cycle that began when he blew his knee in the corresponding match a year ago. James Paterson’s season-ending injury sees Tony Koonwaiyou move to the wing. Canterbury has Peter Borlase back for this match, but lost skipper George Whitelock to a knee problem. Corey Flynn was set to go after recovering from a sternum injury, then tore a calf at training and that will probably end his domestic season. Andy Ellis takes over the captaincy, but the other changes to Canterbury were all optional. This includes the placing of All Black lock Sam Whitelock on the side of the scrum, with Matt Todd taking over at openside.
For the third time this season Southland goes into a 1 v 2 Shield challenge and this one promises to be the hardest of all. The Stags may have staggered last week but it looked as if they were still trying to get the bruises from the Auckland game out of their systems and the error count was three normal games’ worth. Don’t expect Southland to turn in two in a row like that, especially in front of a big home crowd with the Shield on the line. If nothing else the Stags have been brutes on defence with the Log at stake, giving up only three tries in seven matches in this reign. Canterbury, on the other hand, has not been held below 20 points by anyone this season and is the most dangerous team with ball in hand going around the ITM Cup. There have been many matches where they haven’t played all that well, but still manage to create enough chances to have grabbed a couple of undeserved wins. The one at Dunedin wasn’t one of those; Canterbury was always in control and the five points were fully merited.
