The Southland Stags scheduled clash with North Harbour on Friday night has been shifted to the end of the season and its next home assignment against Counties could follow suit.
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MacLeod was after “actions and intent” from his players and said he saw plenty of that. He said they let themselves down in areas such as the lineout and exiting from their own half, but that was a lot to do with the limited preparation time for many of the players. MacLeod got to have a look at various players who had not played a lot at a level above club rugby, and he said those players would have learned a lot from that outing. He said some players were waiting for players to come to them in defence, while those more accustomed to the next level were getting up quickly and “smacking” opposition players in defence.
The Southland Racing Club is an organisation that itself is traditionally in search of sponsorship opportunities rather than handing out money. There was initially some trepidation from fellow club members when the idea of backing the Stags financially was first raised, Bellew said. However, he said there was no catch to the deal, it was simply a case of Southlanders helping out fellow Southlanders. The Southland Racing Club is in a relatively strong position on the back of various recent commercial investments, he said. It included leasing land to the Blue Duck Early Learning Centre which opened at Ascot Park this year.