A wonderful opening 15 minutes ended in a final tense two minutes and a 13-12 defeat.
King's High School played some of its best rugby this season during the opening exchanges of its fixture against Otago Boys' High School 2nd XV at King's.
"I felt in the first 15 minutes we had good control and it was probably the best we had played in terms of structure and sticking to our game plan,'' King's coach Kane Jury said.
"But we lost a bit of structure and accuracy in the contact area.''
King's scored first when halfback Nicky Peat found a gap close to the ruck and scooted 30m to score in the corner.
Otago Boys' replied with a penalty and then got a lucky break with about 10 minutes remaining in the opening half.
King's was pinned down and centre James Te Pairi had his rushed clearing kick charged down.
The visiting side scored from the play and went into halftime with a 10-5 lead.
King's played better in the second spell but was still too impatient with the ball and got pushed off in the contact area too often.
King's did score next, though, and right under the posts.
The conversion went over and, for the next seven minutes, it nursed a 12-10 lead.
But with a minute or two remaining, Otago Boys' knocked over a penalty from in front and held on to win.
In the other Otago premier school games, St Kevin's College beat Kavanagh College 27-21, John McGlashan College thrashed Dunstan High School 58-12 and remains unbeaten, and Waitaki Boys' High School bullied Mt Aspiring College to win 59-0.
