The home team ran out 30-14 winners over a Counties-Manukau team which had a glut of possession and field position but lacked the polish and finishing to put more points on the board.
Otago based its win on a well-organised and scrambling defence which refused to buckle facing a rather one-dimensional Counties-Manukau attack, which enjoyed two-thirds of ball and territory throughout the game.
The home team also made crucial turnovers at times when the visiting team looked ready to score.
It was one of those steals which ultimately sealed the game for Otago.
With 10 minutes left and Otago defending on its line, winger Buxton Popoali'i grabbed the ball from a Counties-Manukau player, and after running 20m he passed the ball to fullback Ben Smith who had daylight in front of him.
He could not be caught on a 70m run, clinching the win for Otago when he dived in the corner.
Smith said after the game he was seizing up after a few metres.
"I haven't played for a while and I started to get sore pretty quickly. I've done a lot training but you can't beat playing the game," he said.
Otago co-coach Phil Mooney said the win was based on some tough defence and good team work.
"I think they had something like 23 minutes inside our 22 while we had something like two. So with a stat like that you have to work really hard. That comes down to desire and wanting to work hard for each other," Mooney said.
"It was one of those games where if a couple of things had gone the other way it may have been a different result. But we managed to get that to work out our way."
Mooney conceded his side may have tried too hard when it did get the ball but that was natural when players were trying to make the most of the limited opportunities they had.
Mooney was pleased with the performance of the scrum, and Otago now had to quickly regather to face Southland at Carisbrook on Saturday.
The side would have a big recovery day today and luckily appeared to have suffered no serious injuries last night.
Counties-Manukau coach Milton Haig said his side just lacked the edge and Smith's try was the turning of the game.
"We dominated most of the stats except the one on the scoreboard ... we probably lacked a bit of firepower and ran too lateral at times," Haig said.
He was pleased with the performance of his forwards who made ground around the ruck and felt his side did not probably deserve to lose by 16 points.
The win by Otago lifts it to second-equal place in the championship, two points behind leader Manawatu, with half the season gone.
Best for Otago was new boy No 8 Andrew Stead and lock Rob Verbakel, while Popoali'i did little wrong. Glenn Dickson was also accurate with his goal kicking, missing just the one shot all night.
Otago was under the hammer almost instantly from the kick-off and was behind after just five minutes.
Counties-Manukau barged the ball off the ruck a dozen times and then fed blindside flanker Adam Cathcart who rumbled a couple of metres to score.
Otago, though, finally woke up and scored after 15 minutes.
Popoali'i ran the ball back from a kick and the ball went wide to centre Jayden Spence who cleverly rolled the ball back inside where it was moved to halfback Johnny Legg who ran 20m to score.
Otago made the most of its raids into opposition territory with Glenn Dickson adding three penalties late in the first half to give his side a comfortable lead at the break.
• Auckland extended its 70-year winning streak over Southland at Eden Park with a 39-26 win in last night's ITM Cup match in Auckland, NZPA reported.
Ahead 15-12 at halftime, Auckland dominated the second 40 minutes with some solid defence, excellent work at the set piece and a pacey backline and did enough to hold off a late Southland revival in the closing 10 minutes.
