Craig Morton said the competition was mooted in 2008 and though the Otago Secondary Schools rugby council indicated a lack of support, once things unfolded, and teams were left to enter at their own accord, entries were oversubscribed. The competition started with 12 teams in 2009 and has expanded to 14 teams this year, although Kavanagh College subsequently pulled out, just before it was to play its first game.
Morton said no formal complaint had ever been received about player poaching.
''It is the parents' choice, as in any democracy, to send their child to a school of their choice,'' Morton said.
Any poaching accusations were issues between school principals.
He said the competition had improved the standard of rugby and proof of that was the ability of sides from the Highlanders area to make the national top four competitions.
''As in any competition you rely on the honesty and integrity of each school and I can put hand on heart and say we have had no issues with teams breaching the regulations.''
The competition was set up to ensure every boy, no matter where they lived, had the opportunity to play at the highest possible level.
He said all the coaches had met in Dunedin last week and everyone was in agreement the competition should continue and all schools were prepared to contribute more money to ensure that happened.
The competition costs $85,000 a year to run and schools pay $3000 each. The bulk of the costs is transport.
