Preview: Southland v Waikato

Southland host Waikato at Rugby Park Stadium in Invercargill for Friday's opening Premiership game of the 2011 ITM Cup.

Southland host Waikato at Rugby Park Stadium in Invercargill for Friday's opening Premiership game of the 2011 ITM Cup.

The Stags hold home and psychological advantage in this Round One clash, with the Mooloo Men having to face the wrath of Southland's die-hard supporters whilst attempting to avenge back-to-back defeats to their hosts.

The southerners got the better of Waikato (16-6) at the same venue in 2009, and again at Waikato Stadium (7-6) for the first time ever last year.

With the Highlanders having a strong season this year, expectations will be high for the Stags to emmulate the franchise's success with several players with Super Rugby experience running out in maroon.

Chris King, Jason Rutledge and Jamie Mackintosh made up the Highlanders front row, and will scrum down together once again for Southland while Josh Bekhuis and John Hardie impressed at lock and flank respectively in Super Rugby.

In the backs, Highlanders trio Robbie Robinson, Kendrick Lynn and Matt Saunders will pose a threat while All Blacks scrum-half Jimmy Cowan's little brother Scott can be a real thorn in any opposition's backside.

Waikato, last year's finalists, aren't short on Super Rugby experience either and their starting XV packs quite a punch with discarded All Blacks winger Sitiveni Sivivatu and fly-half Stephen Donald lining up in the backs.

Waikato rugby legend Marty Holah returns to the Red, Yellow and Black number seven jersey after four years and New Zealand Seven's rising star Declan O'Donnell debuts on the left wing.

Based on pre-season form, Waikato will enter this match reasonably confident having bagged wins over Counties-Manukau and Taranaki after losing to Auckland in between. Southland went down to Otago 13-8 in their only warm-up game of the season.

“We are all looking forward to getting our campaign under way for 2011,” said Waikato coach Chris Gibbes.

“Southland are a fierce rival of ours and we are expecting a massive arm wrestle in Invercargill, but we are up for the challenge.”

The teams:

Southland: 15 Robbie Robinson, 14 Mark Wells, 13 Kendrick Lynn, 12 Matt Saunders, 11 Glen Horton, 10 Scott Eade, 9 Scott Cowan, 8 Elliot Dixon, 7 John Hardie, 6 Alex Taylor, 5 Ben Nally, 4 Josh Bekhuis, 3 Chris King, 2 Jason Rutledge, 1 Jamie Mackintosh.
Replacements: 16 David Hall, 17 Nic Barrett, 18 Joe Tuineau, 19 Kaleni Taetuli, 20 Sonny Rangitoheriri, 21 James Lew, 22 Tim Cornforth, 23 Michael Peterson.

Waikato: 15 Trent Renata, 14 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 13 Save Tokula, 12 Jackson Willison, 11 Declan O'Donnell, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 8 Alex Bradley, 7 Marty Holah, 6 Matt Vant Leven, 5 Romana Graham, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Nathan White (c), 2 Aled de Malmanche, 1 Ben May.
Replacements: 16 Marcel Cummings-Toone, 17 Toby Smith, 18 Chris Middleton, 19 Zak Hohneck, 20 Brendon Leonard, 21 Tim Mikkelson, 22 Rena Schuster, 23 Ted Tauroa.

Referee: Garratt Williamson