The home side had a convincing 41-0 over Christ's College in its annual interschool match yesterday, after leading 24-0 at the break, and now has the prospect of getting a crack at the Moascar Cup, the prized trophy of schoolboy rugby in New Zealand.
Christ's College, coached by former All Black captain Reuben Thorne and former Highlander Cameron McIntyre, had just lost once in the Crusaders competition and was expected to be a tough opponent for the Dunedin side.
But the Christchurch school was a distant second yesterday.
Otago Boys' played as a team and was committed on defence. Hooker Ricky Jackson was outstanding while No8 and captain Isimeli Tuivaga was all over the park.
The win is a big boost for the school which also won over Southland Boys' High School in a Dunedin premier colts match last Saturday.
But the big prize looms next week in an interschool match against Timaru Boys' High School.
Timaru Boys' had a win over St Andrew's College in Christchurch yesterday, and takes hold of the Moascar Cup.
The cup is viewed as the Ranfurly Shield of schools rugby in New Zealand and has never been won or even challenged for by an Otago school.
The cup's origins come from World War 1 when troops were stuck in Egypt at the end of the war in 1919 waiting for ships to be available to get home.
The troops camped at Moascar, near the Suez Canal, and started a rugby competition which was hotly contested.
A cup was donated and it was mounted on a piece of a German wooden propeller shot down in Palestine.
The New Zealand team won the tournament and brought the Moascar Cup, as it was now known, back to New Zealand. It was then donated to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union to be a challenge trophy involving the top school teams. It was first contested in 1920.
It has been in the North Island for most of the intervening 96 years but St Andrew's College got its hands on it last year when it played against Scots College when both sides were weakened due to national tournament commitments.
Timaru beat St Andrew's yesterday and will have a challenge against Nelson College on Saturday before taking on Otago Boys' High School next Wednesday in Timaru in the annual interschool.
The rules are being investigated to see whether Otago Boys' will be allowed a challenge as not all home games are guaranteed challenges.
Otago Boys' coach Ryan Martin said his side would be very keen to have a crack at the esteemed trophy.
