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The Muster- Logan Savory: Reviewing The Stags · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Rondi is the music, of course, featuring Debbie Harry on
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: lead vocals. You're listening to The Muster. Logan Savry joins
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: us next out of the Southland Tribune. Good afternoon, Sav.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The stag season is nothing but a vast memory now.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's over just like that, isn't it? Ten weeks
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: and it rolls by pretty fast. pretty quickly, and we
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: have to sit back and watch the next three weeks
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: of play-out, which, yeah, look, two from 10, you'd have
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: to say, in that sort of sense, disappointing season. Blew
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: that game against Manor 2, put themselves in position to
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: win against Canterbury and North on the last couple of
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: weeks and didn't get across the line, so two from 10,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: 13th place, you know, I'm... on numbers alone in that
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: sort of sense you'd have to say disappointing season um
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: and i guess now we look to what's what's next for.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Them scott adas coach it was initiation by fire quite
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: literally and he's very approachable guy his heart's in the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: right place very passionate for this team how would you
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: rate his season oh i.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Think you summed her up it was uh baptism by
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  Speaker 2: fire um for Scott. He'd come in and I think
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: he was, talking to him pre-season, was pretty happy with
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: the squad he had assembled. Within the space of about
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: two weeks of pre-season, assembled the squad, he'd lost about
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: eight or nine players and really, particularly in the backs,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: really tested the depth. Look, personally, I believe Scott will
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: be and is a good coach. He does need a
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: bit of luck around that sort of sense You add
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to that those injuries I talked about. Samisi Tupou-Tailawa making
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the All Blacks, great for him. That was a big
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: loss for Southland. Just before the season, he had signed
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Fela Toipeni, who was big for them the year before.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: I think it was planned to base a lot of
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: the tack around him at second five. Moana Pacifica folded,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and he obviously quite rightly had to look at other
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: opportunities and landed a deal in France. But look, no,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I've got confidence that Scott can turn the ship around.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I know he just needs probably a bit of luck
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: around that injury front and players available. He, through his
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: past role as academy manager, has... worked a lot with
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  Speaker 2: some of the young guys coming through and has now
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: exposed a lot of those guys to MPC rugby and
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I would have liked to think they'll be better for
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: that in the coming seasons.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: The cynics would suggest how many of these players will
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: be seen in Invercargill next MPC season?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Well, talking to Scott the other day about that exact thing,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: he acknowledged we're never probably going to get 100% retention.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Some players will leave overseas for opportunities. Some players, they
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: may look to move on. But he is confident that
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: there's already a lot of work being done and there'll
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: be a high percentage of the current squad back next season.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: So I think I understand they've already made some pretty
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: good inroads into getting that sorted.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Jack Taylor got injured, entered Jadon Henderson, and it's fair
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: to say the bloke from Riversdale did an outstanding job.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he was one of the real success
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: stories of the season. Look, stoked for him. He's a
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: guy that, as you said, from Riversdale that really wanted
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: to play for South and went pretty close in 2024
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: and didn't quite get the nod then. Went away, worked
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: on his game, come back and has taken every opportunity.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Come back and originally his injury cover in the pre-season,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: had a huge game in the pre-season against Otago, and
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: then got included in the 23, as you mentioned. Jack
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Taylor goes down, huge loss for the Stags, but Jadon
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Henderson stood up and great for him. He'll now probably
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: play club rugby. If not, I understand that there's talk
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of potential interest of a Super Rugby wider contract potentially.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: If not, he'll play club rugby down here and be
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: back next season. So that's a great win, I think,
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  Speaker 2: and a great success story for this season.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Sav, as far as Super Rugby, it's going ahead next year,
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  Speaker 1: albeit a bigger version, which arguably is going to be
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: interesting from an engagement perspective. But the MPC, it's all
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: guns ahead for next season, do you understand?
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep, all locked in for next season. I think
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: if there's any changes... what those changes might be. There's
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: a lot to go under bridge. That's from 2028 onwards.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: So they're working through that. But as far as at
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  Speaker 2: this stage, things are all go for next season. Look,
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  Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of doom and gloom around rugby, obviously,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: the narrative, and I understand why that is and the challenges.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: But I looked at that game on Friday night at
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  Speaker 2: Rugby Park between Southland and Northland. a game that really
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: didn't mean a lot for Southlands in terms of the competition.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: And there would have been, I mean, I don't know,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: I haven't got the official count, but there would have
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: been 7,000 people there, I would have thought, maybe some more.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And that, to me, suggests that provincial rugby still holds
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: a bit of interest around the place, and that should
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: be celebrated.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: How would you rate the season, just to wrap up?
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: What would you give it out of 10?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Well, I couldn't give it a pass mark, so what's
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: a pass mark? It's five, so I'd have to say
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: maybe a four.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Logan Savory, always appreciate your time. Keep up the great
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: work with the Tribune.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Andy.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Logan Savory of the Southland Tribune. Yeah, super fans like
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Joanne Kyle. Great to see you out and about again
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: this year. Tom O'Brien's up next to wrap up.