Southland co-coach Simon Culhane is maintaining his sense of humour ahead of tomorrow night's Air NZ Cup rugby semifinal against bogey-team Wellington at the Cake Tin.

After last week's raid on Canterbury, which brought the Ranfurly Shield to the deep south for the first time in 50 years, getting up to beat Wellington at home could prove tough for Southland.

But Culhane feels the side have managed to re-focus.

"Obviously we've had to sober up pretty quickly," Culhane said in a nod to three days of celebrations after they returned with the shield.

Culhane's confident that the players have been straightened out since after being made to sweat beer in training this week.

"Unless they hurt themselves dancing [last] Friday night, they should be right," he said.

"We had an eight-day turnaround and we have looked at the semifinal no different to any other week.

"It's business as usual; that's the way we have approached every game this year and hopefully we get the recipe right."

It will be Southland's second straight semifinal, but their record against Wellington contains nothing to lift their spirits.

Wellington have won their last five games against Southland, including 28-19 in last year's semifinal and 32-13 in their most recent meeting in September.

Southland led 14-11 with 10 minutes to go in last year's semifinal but had their hearts ripped out by wing Hosea Gear.

Reminded of Gear's match-winning two-try performance, Culhane said: "This time, I'll be sitting in the stands with a rifle!"

"Hosea was definitely a force last year.

"Unfortunately he wasn't selected for the All Blacks, he's going to be there and we'll just have to contend with that."

Wellington coach Jamie Joseph has named Piri Weepu at No 10, from where the All Black halfback also played a major role in last year's win over Southland.

"He's dangerous and we'll have to take that into account - his matchup with our Robbie Robinson will be interesting," Culhane said.

This season, Southland have moved away from a forward-orientated approach, turning to a hard-running backline in which midfielders Kendrick Lynn and Jason Kawau have been outstanding.

If conditions permitted Southland would be giving the ball lots of air, Culhane said.

Wellington have had a patchy season but even without their All Blacks, they will prove formidable.

"They can be very physical upfront. They got a fairly pacey backline and their broken field running is pretty outstanding."

But Culhane's promising there'll be no backdown in the contact area from his forwards, a tactic that almost paid off last year when they slowed Wellington ball down at every opportunity.

Southland will be without inspirational No 8 David Hall (knee injury) with Hua Tamariki coming in as his replacement.

"Tamariki is no stranger to football at this level and has played five games earlier this season, so we are really pleased to have him back," Culhane said.

"Wellington obviously have got the wood on us but we are looking to change that on the weekend."

With the exception of Tamariki, Southland have named the same side that started against Canterbury.