| Home team | Southland |
| Away team | Bay of Plenty |
| Venue | Invercargill Rugby Park |
| Competition | NPC |
| Kick-off time | 6:05 am (UK) 5:05 pm (NZ) |
| Watch Live in the UK | NPC YouTube Channel |
Southland vs Bay of Plenty NPC preview as the sides meet in round seven of the competition. Southland have currently only won one of the six games played so far this year. The Bay of Plenty have won three games and are on 17 points.
Read more match previews here
Southland Stags vs Bay of Plenty confirmed lineups
| Southland Stags | Bay of Plenty | ||||
| Forwards | |||||
| Barrett | 1 | Rounds | |||
| Henderson | 2 | Tupou | |||
| Latu | 3 | F Vakasiuola | |||
| Dunshea | 4 | Ah Kuoi | |||
| Kirkwood | 5 | Felise | |||
| Fischli | 6 | Johnston | |||
| Rutledge | 7 | Lasaqa | |||
| Withy | 8 | Broughton | |||
| Backs | |||||
| Shearer | 9 | Judd | |||
| Muliaina | 10 | Hohepa | |||
| Vaihu | 11 | Van Vugt | |||
| Harvey | 12 | Webber | |||
| Gregory | 13 | Armstrong | |||
| Manson | 14 | Ware | |||
| Taylor | 15 | Forbes | |||
| Replacements | |||||
| Kempton | 16 | Kolose | |||
| Sexton | 17 | Mafileo | |||
| Fidow | 18 | Tukuafu | |||
| Aho | 19 | A Vakasiuola | |||
| Halaholo | 20 | Spratlet | |||
| Marsh | 21 | Sinton | |||
| Morgan | 22 | Cashmore | |||
| Gualter | 23 | Lea | |||
Recent Form:
Southland Stags (Home team):
| Result | Date | Competition | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 6th September 2026 | NPC | Counties Manukau | 47-24 |
| Loss | 27th August 2026 | NPC | Hawke’s Bay | 21-36 |
| Loss | 22nd August 2026 | NPC | Tasman | 46-17 |
| Won | 16th August 2026 | NPC | Waikato | 32-31 |
| Loss | 9th August 2026 | NPC | Manawatu | 36-35 |
Southland’s losing run extended to three games with a heavy loss to Counties Manukau. They started the game well with a powerful scrum, giving them the platform to score in the corner. Southland would then concede three in a row before halftime and had another ruled out for the a knock-on. The two that came in the final 10 minutes were filled with Stags mistakes. After a long clearance kick, they decided to keep the ball in at the back but allowed a strong chase to keep it in.
After some back and forth, using their feet on the floor allowed Counties to score. A missed tackle straight from the kick-off let Counties break through, and the defenders in the backfield were each held and picked off by good passes from the Counties on rushing support.
Southland struck back to start the second half and piled over with two powerful tries starting with mauls. The first saw them go over directly from the maul, while the second took some offloading work in the phases afterwards to get them over, bringing the scores back to 19-17.
Counties would score for more tries in the final 23 minutes, which would make the game seem bugger than it was between the sides. The final one came in the final play, and as Southland chased the game, they made a handling error at the back, allowing the ball to be touched down. Tayne Harvey had scored a great counterattacking try just before this to get it back to a 16-point deficit. The game finished 47-24.
Bay of Plenty (Away team):
| Result | Date | Competition | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 5th September 2026 | NPC | Manawatu | 12-29 |
| Won | 28th August 2026 | NPC | Auckland | 19-22 |
| Won | 22nd August 2026 | NPC | Taranaki | 28-24 |
| Loss | 15th August 2026 | NPC | Canterbury | 33-28 |
| Won | 8th August 2026 | NPC | Northland | 34-31 |
The Bay of Plenty ended a two-game winning streak with a defeat to Manawatu as they 29-12 to the visitors. The game started well, and they went into the break with a 12-0 lead. The first came just six minutes in after some strong phase work around the corner provided space for Regan Ware to finish in the corner. Ware thought he had another as he dotted down on 20 minutes, but the pass over the top was judged forward.
Mafile’o, the prop, finished off a series of rumbling phases before the break to score the final of the Bay’s points going into half-time. The Bay of Plenty had lost their lead by 60 minutes, conceding two tries, the second of which came from a series of lovely offloads within the front row.
They scored another two tries in the game, the first of which saw a series of handling errors from the Bay of Plenty at the back, giving up a five-metre try. A penalty at the maul in the final minutes would allow Manawatu to kick a penalty and win the game.
Southland Stags vs Bay of Plenty head-to-head record (last five matches):
| Date | Competition | Winner | Score |
| 21st August 2025 | NPC | Southland | 25-30 |
| 27th September 2023 | NPC | Bay of Plenty | 23-25 |
| 18th September 2022 | NPC | Bay of Plenty | 54-21 |
| 15th August 2021 | NPC | Bay of Plenty | 11-31 |
| 19th September 2020 | NPC | Bay of Plenty | 17-14 |
