Taranaki Bulls vs Southland NPC preview: Lineups and predictions

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. 

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Taranaki Bulls vs Southland confirmed lineups

Recent Form:

Taranaki Bulls (Home team): 

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): 

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):

Taranaki have won each of the meetings since 2009 with their only meeting since 2021, coming in 2024 with a 24-39 win for the visitors.

Predictions

• Taranaki to win
• A maul try to be scored by Bradley Slater