The Eastern Northern Barbarians will host Marist at the Pioneer club ground at Newman Park at 3pm.
AJ Aitken is in his second season as the Barbarians head coach and has a larger and more organised squad to start the competition this year. Nick Hayes, Woody Kirkwood and Jacob Coghlan will be assisting Aitken.
Southland Stags prop Morgy Mitchell will captain the Barbarians this year. The combined side hosted the Kaikorai Demons for a warm-up game on March 21.
Marist will head out to Gore under the guidance of new head coach Jeremy Crooks. Lucian Lauofo will help coach the forwards and Martin O’Connell will mentor the backline.
Marist will be without three of their best forwards in Ben Fotheringham, Hunter Areaiiti-Burgess and Jackson Bevin. Experienced backline men Scott Eade and Keanu Kahukura are also unavailable.
Marist prepared themselves for the season by playing against the Harbour Hawks in Dunedin on March 21.
Invercargill Blues will host Woodlands at Appleby Park. Mike Cunningham is the Blues head coach this year, assisted by senior players Daniel Townson, Pale Tuilagi and Mike Peterson.
Blues will be a fitter team this year with Mana Harrison working on their endurance during preseason.
Woodlands beat Pirates Old Boys 40-30 in the Galbraith Shield final at Rugby Park last year.
Their coach Richard Jones is in the Southland Stags coaching group this season.
Barry Smith is the new head coach at Woodlands, while senior players Jason Rutledge and Liam Howley will also be helping coach.
The defending champions have retained the bulk of their squad from last year and added some new recruits.
Woodlands have lost utility back Fletcher Morgan and prop Paula Latu, who are away on national sevens and Super Rugby duties respectively. Stags lock Alex Yallop is still unavailable due to his shoulder injury.
Pirates Old Boys will host Star at Surrey Park.
Former Southland loose forward Matt James is the new head coach for Pirates Old Boys but regular coach Dayna Cunningham and mate Ben McHugh will still be available to assist this season.
Former POB head coach Michael McKenzie is back at Surrey Park to run the backline, while Josh Walker will oversee the forwards.
POB have retained the vast majority of last year’s squad that saw them through to the minor premiership.
Former Stags captain Brayden Mitchell is the head coach at Star again this year. Josh van Leishout, Mark McHugh, Callum Rutledge are the assistants.
Star earned a 36-21 win in their preseason game against Invercargill Blues a fortnight ago.
Star will be without young halfback Jackson Hughan for at least the first half of the season.
Hughan is on tour with the New Zealand under-20 team. His fellow under-20 training camp attendee Sam Mustchin should be on hand for the majority of the season in the midfield for Star.
Nate Cobett is another young back in the Star team with a bright future.
He is part of Rugby Southland’s high-performance group and is coming off another quality season in rugby league.
- John Langford
