With only two wins in the season, the Stags have one last shot to show what they’re made of.
This Saturday’s match against North Harbour coincides with two significant player milestones; stalwart Josh Bekhuis playing a record-breaking 144th game and Isaac Te Tamaki claiming his 50th cap.
With nothing else to lose, the team should at least play with the mana they are about to bestow on Bekhuis and Te Tamaki.
And it is not just the players who have come away from the games bruised by defeat; so do the fans.
But like the players who get back on the field, ready to face their opponents for another battle, so do the Stags faithfuls, cheering and believing in their team from the sidelines.
Southland Stags coach Matt Saunders said the team needed to make sure they "nail this weekend and do what's right by these guys with their milestones".
"I have played with Josh and coached him.
"I'm just really proud to be associated with a guy that's given so much to the jersey.
"He's just such a professional."
Saunders was equally honest about Southland Stags supporters, describing them as, "the best fans in the country by miles every week" and the team, "owed the fans a big effort and a result".
"You do feel it when you don't perform and you do feel like you are letting them down a wee bit," he said.
The Stags coach admitted the team’s performance was a reflection of his own performance as a rugby professional and he was fully aware of how it felt to win and lose games as a player and a coach.
"You feel proud when they do well and you feel their pain when they don't.
"You try bloody hard.
"It's just sometimes you're not good enough and that's our challenge to keep helping them get better but you do take a lot of pride when things go well like the situations with Josh and Isaac," Saunders said.
The Stags host North Harbour at Rugby Park this Saturday at 4.35pm.
They have more than antlers to raise on Saturday; it is hope they need to get across the line.
