Taranaki Bulls vs Southland NPC preview: Lineups and predictions

Home team	Taranaki Bulls
Away team	Southland Stags
Venue	Stadium Taranaki
Competition	NPC-Round 8
Kick-off time	6:05 am (UK) 5:05 pm (NZ)
Watch Live in the UK	NPC YouTube Channel

Taranaki Bulls vs Southland preview as the sides meet in round eight of the competition. Taranaki currently sit on 19 points, six points ahead of Southland and a win would see them go into the playoff places in the top eight.

Taranaki Bulls vs Southland confirmed lineups

Taranaki Bulls		Southland
Forwards
Proffit	1		Barrett
Slater	2		Henderson
O’Neill	3		Latu
Parete	4		Dunshea
Sa	5		Aho
Namosimalua	6		Fischli
Jury	7		Rutledge
Poliko	8		Withy
Backs
Ngatai	9		Shearer
Jacomb	10		Muliaina
Naholo	11		Morgan
Rona	12		Harvey
Grindlay	13		Gualter
Ratu	14		Manson
Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens	15		Taylor
Replacements
Pokai	16		Kempton
Lawrence	17		Sexton
Watson	18		Fa’agase
Tocker	19		Ahokovi
Waleers-Hansen	20		Halaholo
Lennox	21		Marsh
Clarke	22		Taniyama
Wiseman	23		Augustine

Recent Form:

Taranaki Bulls (Home team):

Result	Date	Competition	Opponent	Score
Loss	10th September 2026	NPC	Manawatu	27-25
Won	3rd September 2026	NPC	Auckland	28-12
Won	29th August 2026	NPC	Canterbury	40-26
Loss	22nd August 2026	NPC	Bay of Plenty	28-24
Loss	14th August 2026	NPC	Northland	42-0

Taranaki had been on a two game wing run before defeat to Manawatu. They got off to an ideal start, scoring a penalty from distance and then a driving maul to get over the line and go 10-0 ahead in the 12th minute.

Manawatu would hit back a few minutes later scoring under the posts a few minutes later. The Turbos would kick a penalty to leave the scores level at 10-10. A poor clearance kick from Taranaki allowed Manawatu to take the lead on the counter attack but the Bulls were able to get back into things with the clock in the red before halftime and a kick through by Sam Clark saw Daniel Rona bring the scores back to 17-17 at the break.

Manawatu took the lead in the second half but Taranaki were able to get back into things. A poor piece of discipline saw the Turbos 12 slap the ball out of the 9’s hands and get put in the sinbin. Taranaki got their try from a rolling maul to go within two points and kicked a penalty when against 14 men to take a one point lead into the final 10 minutes. As the game was about to enter the final two minutes, Taranaki looked like they were going to hold the ball up in open play and earn a turnover. James Proffitt came around the back of the maul and jumped on it in one of the most bizarre decisions to decide the game.

Southland Stags (Away team):

Result	Date	Competition	Opponent	Score
Won	13th September 2026	NPC	Bay of Plenty	43-12
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

Southland were under pressure from early on. After a charged down kick, Bay of Plenty had a five-metre scrum. After a few phases they got over the line. Just a few minutes later, Southland got on the board with a rollwing maul to bring the scores back to 7-7. Despite a desperate turnover on their own line, the poor clearance kick allowed the Bay of Plenty to counterattack and a crossfield kick found space out wide.

After a forward pass denied one try in the corner, some great backplay saw the Stags use the penalty advantage to score in the other corner.

After a Bay of Plenty yellow card, a nice chip over the top would see Southland take a 17-12 into the break.

It took 15 minutes to break the deadlock in the second half, but another yellow card for the Bay of Plenty came as Southland were given the penalty try.

Bay of Plenty went down to 13 after a high tackle and a few minutes later this created space for Southland to attack from deep and after a series of offloads they ran it in from well inside their own half initially. After another Bay of Plenty mistake some great footballing skills from Muliaina allowed him to score under the posts. A final try in the last 10 minutes would seal the 43-12 win.

Taranaki Bulls vs Southland Stags head-to-head record (last five matches):

Date	Competition	Winner	Score
24th August 2024	NPC	Taranaki	24-39
13th November 2021	NPC Playoffs	Taranaki	25-13
7th November 2021	NPC	Taranaki	24-10
17th October 2020	NPC	Taranaki	9-17
26th September 2019	NPC	Taranaki	19-0