The game was due to be played last weekend, but was postponed because of Alert Level 2 restrictions.
Musterers team manager Paul Ensor said the game was organised to raise money for St John so needed a supportive crowd to raise as much money as possible.
The event, which has been held almost every year for the past 63 years, has traditionally been played at the end of the autumn muster when many musterers were still around. It was the longest-running charity match in the southern hemisphere.
Plans are for a collection bucket to be passed around and there will also a charity auction.
Mr Ensor said organisers would wait for Alert Level 1 to make it worthwhile, but it would have to be played within the next month, otherwise it was likely to be cancelled.
A former player himself, Mr Ensor (43) said the mind was willing but the body tended to suffer.
He played 12 games in his time but said players such as Chas Todhunter, of Glenfalloch Station, would have played more, as would legends such as Jim Morris, from Manuka Point Station, (now retired and living in Tarras) who used to ride his Clydesdale horse across the Rakaia River in the 1980s.
In the past, the team was made up of musterers from around the Rakaia Gorge but in recent years players had been gathered from Rakaia and Ashburton Gorges, both sides of the Rakaia River and along the foothills to Mt Somers.
"We have had to spread the net out a bit further these days as there are not the number of shepherds and musterers around as there used to be.
"We just try and grab anyone who has worked up here over the past year and fit enough to pull on a pair of boots ... generally, they have some sort of connection [with mustering]."
In the past, night games always suited the musterers better: "We were able to slip a couple of extra players on in the shadows and that helped us a bit. We got found out one year and the following year we didn’t play as [well] any more."
He was hopeful for a heap of guys so the team could have rolling subs on the day.
"Some of the guys are hill fit, but not necessarily rugby fit," he said.
"One year, the gorge forward pack weighed more than the All Black team of the day ... it must have been around the 1970s. It doesn’t mean they were better, they were just heavier."
Mr Ensor was hopeful this year the musterers would win — but said the game was more about the camaraderie for a cause than the final result.
