The Stags 2024 Bunnings NPC campaign will begin with a preseason match against Otago at the Pioneer Rugby Club on July 26.
The game will mark the first Stags game played in Gore in over six years.
The last game was played in 2017, at the Gore A&P Showgrounds.
Otago beat Southland 17-14 in that match.
There is a strong number of Eastern Southland representatives in the Stags squad for the season.
Highlanders Jack Taylor and Hayden Michaels are in the squad, along with Leroy Ferguson, Angus Simmers and Morgan Mitchell of the Eastern Northern Barbarians rugby team.
Taylor earned 11 caps for the Highlanders this season and Michaels earned one.
Ethan De Groot is also in the squad but, as an All Black, he will be in San Diego on July 20 for a test match against Fiji.
A water boy role like last year could be on the table, as the team does not play again until August 10 in Wellington.
The signing of All Black Sevu Reece, despite being unlikely to play, will be a welcome addition to the team environment and he could make an appearance similar to De Groot on the sideline.
Two other Eastern Southland players will be at the game but they will be representing Otago.
Two former Māruawai College (formerly Gore High School) players Cam Millar and Finn Hurley are in the squad, along with Harry Taylor.
Hurley and Taylor will likely play in the fixture, but Millar could be a potential absence due to starting much of the back end of the Super Rugby Pacific season at first five-eighth.
Southland and Otago will meet again in the first round of the competition on "Stag Day".
In 2023 the Stags finished bottom of the Bunnings NPC competition.
They recorded one win, against Manawatū, a draw against Northland and eight losses.
