Stags on wrong side of ledger
ANALYSIS: The Southland Stags have had a rugby season they would rather forget, losing all 10 national provincial rugby championship games this season, but they also find themselves at the wrong end of statistical categories.
They have become the first team since Northland in 2015 to not win a game in a Mitre 10 Cup season and the first Southland team to not win a competition game since 1999. They only just avoided the mantle of the worst Southland team in NPC history too.
The 1990 Southland team lost every game on their way to a last place finish in the first division, but that was when the All Blacks played in the competition.
The Hoani Macdonald-coached side finished their season with an average points differential of -30 points per game, only just avoiding the -30.5 per game from the 1990 team, although that was when tries were only worth four points.
The 2017 version were the worst attacking and defending team, finishing the season with a points differential of -300.
They scored 154 points (15.4 points per game), which was 49 points less than their nearest rivals Hawke’s Bay, while they conceded 454 points (45.4 points per game), 56 points more than the Magpies.
The Stags’ defensive effort was only slightly better than the 2004 Northland team, who conceded 48.4 points per game in their nine match season and at least 29 points or more every game. The alarming thing for Southland is that both their attack and defence have been getting worse.
Over the last four seasons they have gone from scoring 27 tries in 2014 to 18 tries this season, while defensively they let in 66 tries, compared with 34 in 2014.
All is not lost for the Southland Stags; with no relegation threat, and the Northland team of 2015 who finished their season winless, with a solitary bonus point and a points differential of -277, made the NPC semifinals this season.