FORMER PLAYER’S VIEW: Holding out hope we will turn a corner
Seventeen consecutive losses and counting – each of them a dagger blow to former Southland hooker Jason Rutledge.
No-one has played more games (138) for the Stags than the 40-yearold, who isn’t short of an opinion when it comes to the embattled union and its on-field issues.
Southland, who challenge Waikato for the Ranfurly Shield today, haven’t won in almost two years and are staring down the barrel of a third consecutive wooden spoon finish in the championship section of the Mitre 10 Cup.
Rutledge last played for the Stags in 2016 but still puts the boots on for Woodlands, one of five surviving clubs in the Southland premier competition.
‘‘No, it’s really struggling,’’ he said when asked if club rugby was on the rise.
They’re ominous words for Rugby Southland, which last year pledged to improve the standard of premier club rugby in a bid to create competition for spots, and to produce players fit to play in the provincial competition.
‘‘I’m on the rugby advisory board down here and it’s quite scary when they start chucking out the figures,’’ Rutledge said.
While Southland’s premier competition consists of six teams, one of them is a combined team from Gore and the surrounding area.
Rutledge, who is closing in on 250 games for his club, plans to play again next year. However, the fact he and other grizzly veterans would do so was telling. ‘‘You’ve got players like myself who are still playing who are getting older and older. So the premier teams are getting older and older because you’ve got guys coming back to help their club out, rather than these young guys pushing to take their spots,’’ he said.
‘‘I think it’s only going to get worse in the next five years, when these older guys are going to say they can’t do this any more. Then we’re going to realise that none of these young guys have come through and we’re going to be in a hell of a spot.’’
Rutledge points a finger at first XV rugby and the lack of flow through from schoolboy rugby to club rugby.
He would rather players stayed with their clubs right the way through, rather than the good players being gobbled up by Southland Boys’ High School when they’re 11 and seldom returning at age 19.
Rugby Southland boss Brian Hopley conceded there was ‘‘a lot of work to do’’ to improve club rugby but said the wheels were in motion.
‘‘One of the things we want the Stags coaches to do is to start mentoring and working with the club coaches. We started that process this year, and we will grow that.’’
Rutledge, who suggested a match between reigning Heartland champions Wanganui and Southland would be a close game, wasn’t all doom and gloom.
He holds out hope the Stags will turn a corner, pointing to Northland and North Harbour overcoming recent troubles, and the fact Southland climbed out of a rut after he started his career in 2000.