But the season will not finish there. The winner will play Otago Boys’ High School First XV next weekend for provincial bragging rights.
The winner of that game, and it is probably going to be Otago Boys’, will play Southland Boys’ High School in the Highlanders area final which will be staged in Invercargill on August 20.
The best team from the Highlanders catchment will travel to play the champion team out of the Crusaders region. The victor from that fixture can not only lay claim to being the best school team in the South Island, but it will have qualified for the top four of the National First XV Championship.
Otago Boys’ got through to that stage last year but lost to Scots College 35-27.
Otago Boys’ shared the title with Rotorua Boys’ High School in 1998. The tournament has been running since 1982.
The national co-educational tournament has run parallel since 2007 and next week Dunstan High School will host South Otago High School in one regional semifinal, with Kavanagh College is at home to St Kevin’s College in the other. The winners will contest the Otago final.
The Otago champion will host the Southland champion with the winner travelling to play the top school from the Crusaders region. The winner of the South Island final will join the three best North Island teams in the national finals.
Otago Secondary Rugby Council chairman Murray Munro has been thrilled with the way the Otago premier schools competition has gone this season. Semifinals were introduced this season to keep more teams alive for longer but the two best teams made the final regardless.
Playing at Forsyth Barr Stadium is ‘‘something the boys will remember for life’’.‘‘That is due to co-operation between the schools. It was their initiative, so not the council that set that game up. It was very pro-active to arrange that facility.’’
