The competition finished over the weekend, with Southland Boys beating Waitaki Boys 24-8 in the final.
Dunstan won the middle four section and Central Southland won the bottom four section of the 12-team competition, which was sponsored by Zero Fees and the Otago Daily Times.
Otago Rugby Football Union amateur rugby manager Justin Gardner said he had been thrilled with the success of the competition.
The standard of rugby had improved, and the competition had enjoyed a high profile.
"The objective this year was to get the competition going and iron out all the creaks, learn from them, and then in 2010 really get it going," he said.
"But it hasn't worked out like that. Everyone has been really supportive and we could not have asked for more."
About 2000 watched the final at Rugby Park in Invercargill on Friday night, while about 300 were at the middle four final in Alexandra.
Gardner said player development had gone well, and every team had improved.
Though some teams had to travel far there were few complaints.
The competition cost about $100,000 to run, mainly because of travel costs, but the Southern Institute of Technology and the Otago Daily Times have confirmed their sponsorship for the next two years. The Southern Trust is also a sponsor.
Schools faced a cost of about $3000, but Gardner said that compared favourably with the $10,000 for schools in the Crusaders franchise competition.
Under the competition rules, the winner of the Otago under-18 competition could challenge for a position against the lowest finishing Otago side in the school competition.
But Upper Clutha won the under-18 competition, and not being a school side, could not play in the competition.
Gardner acknowledged there had been plenty of comment about players who had left school or went to a smaller school playing for another First XV.
But in many cases that had been a tradition of players from another school playing in the First XV, and players had no other team to play for.
The idea of having a combined side from Dunedin co-educational schools had been mooted. Gardner said that proposal, along with others, would form part of a debrief to take place next month.
There was a possibility to expand to 14 teams but there were issues around costs and also the ability to fit all the games into the playing window.
