Taieri took the first step when it beat Dunedin to win the premier 2 competition at the University Oval on Saturday.
This Saturday it will challenge University B, the bottom team in the premier competition, for a place back in Dunedin's top competition.
Taieri voluntarily withdrew from the premier competition after it finished bottom in the 2000 season. It would be fitting for Taieri to regain premier status in its 125th anniversary year.
The club has been striving to regain premier status but has lost the final of the premier 2 competition to Dunedin the last four years.
"We were happy with the win today," Taieri captain Kurt Webster said after the game. "It's been a long time coming."
Webster is confident of beating University B in the promotion-relegation game.
"The boys are looking forward to it and are hungry," he said. "We have got the game structure and the talented players to win next week.
There was a crowd of several hundred Taieri supporters at the University Oval on Saturday and Webster is confident that Taieri can get the player support to sustain a premier team again.
"We have lost a lot of players from the Taieri who have gone into town to play for other teams," Webster said.
"If we can get back into premier rugby, I'm sure we can draw a lot of players from the Taieri to come back out and play for us."
The chairman of the Metropolitan committee Dennis Richardson said the University club would not be able to stack its team with players from University A for the promotion-relegation game.
"The team will need to be from players in the University B squad and not University A players," he said.
"We will check the team list to make sure they are players from the University B squad."
The criteria is that any player who has had seven or more starts for University A will not be eligible to play.
The key to Taieri's win was its lively and aggressive loose forward trio of Eric Vaafusuaga, Jeremy Corliss and Ben Kerr who dominated the breakdown.
Corliss and Kerr backed lock Kurt Webster to give Taieri the edge in the line-out.
The Taieri backline was a strong defensive unit with the midfield of Rowan Shanks and Shane Crossan having good games.
Dunedin played defensively for most of the game, but looked dangerous when it adopted an all-out attack late in the game.
• Taieri 22 (Todd Ford, Jared Campbell tries; Matt Hogan 3 penalty goals, Campbell dropped goal), Dunedin 13 (Greg Cooney, Seth McPhee tries; Ben Young penalty goal). Half-time: Taieri 17-8.
