It's been some ride for Stags

OPINION: So that's it, writes Nathan Burdon in this week's Straight Up.

 Southland's rugby season came to an abrupt halt against the attacking might of Wellington in the capital on Saturday night.

It's been some sort of ride.

Back in July the Stags started to attract a bit of buzz when they got through the preseason unbeaten, with wins over North Otago, Canterbury and Otago.

Didn't matter much at the time. You can't read too much into preseason form, and all that.

Then the Stags up and beat Waikato in the opening round and backed that effort up a week later by winning against Otago at Carisbrook.

Stags co-coaches David Henderson and Simon Culhane have a little thing going where Henderson handles the media duties if they win and Culhane does it if they lose.

It's fair to say talking to the press is not Culhane's favourite part of coaching the Stags. He's a canny operator and I'm sure his logic is that the Stags will win more than they lose, so he'll get the easier run.

And he's been right this season.

I've covered a lot of Southland rugby during the past 10 years, travelled to a lot of games, had to find new ways to describe a lot of defeats. Recession pressures have meant we don't travel as much (read: hardly at all) now, but still I've noticed a palpable change around the Stags.

There's no longer a hope of victory, it's an expectation. Something special has been built at Rugby Park.

Southland is not a provincial powerhouse, even with the Ranfurly Shield in the cabinet, but it is a threat. The Stags finished the season as probably New Zealand's top non-Super 14 base province. I'm not sure I believed that was achievable, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.wThis year's Tour of Southland will be a cracker if it can live up to the hype. It's got a record field and several teams capable of claiming the yellow jersey.

That's exciting. What isn't exciting is the reliance on the same stages year in, year out.

This shouldn't be read as a criticism of Cycling Southland or race director Bruce Ross.

Organising this tour is a mammoth logistical exercise.

Still, I would love to see some changes, such as an inner-city criterium.

And a stage taking in the entirety of the Crown Range would carry so much impact aesthetically that it would be worth the headaches it would create.

It's worth talking about, anyway.

• This will be my final Straight Up column – on a Monday. From this week I'll be shifting to a Saturday.

» Nathan Burdon has been the Southland Times sports editor since 2003 and has won numerous journalism awards, including provincial sports writer of the year.

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